The Bridge supports pupils to overcome any barriers to learning, whilst nurturing them in readiness for the real world.  It is a sanctuary for pupils as and when they need extra support and comfort. 

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Estyn recently visited Mary Immaculate High School to conduct a Thematic Review focusing on how schools and PRUs support learners to build resilience. The Bridge was recognised for its good practice in supporting pupils. As a result, Estyn published a case study from our school as part of their report. 

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The Estyn case study stated: 

  

"Mary Immaculate High School has developed ‘The Bridge’ facility in order to deliver a range of tailored intervention strategies. The Bridge works as an overarching intermediary between home and school. It provides a safe and structured environment situated in a quiet area of the school where staff deliver a range of creative activities tailored carefully to meet pupils’ needs. They include therapy to improve social contact, anger management support and sessions to help develop social and emotional communication skills. They also deliver bespoke programmes to meet the needs of pupils, for example, they adapt a speech and language package to develop pupils’ social skills. Their impact is monitored and reviewed appropriately to ensure that each programme addresses the needs of each learner." 

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"The Bridge facility has a range of beneficial partnerships with outside agencies, such as the educational psychology service, mental health services, school nurse teams, social services, and police community liaison officers to benefit pupils and remove barriers to learning. For example, they have a Mental Health Nurse working with a group of anxious pupils. All these partnerships help pupils in different ways to face challenges and overcome adversities in their lives, building their resilience. The progress of pupils receiving intervention is closely monitored and reviewed and demonstrates that facility and the approaches have had a significant impact on their social development, attendance, exclusion levels and outcomes."

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In the Bridge, we work hard in building relationships with parents/carers and outside agencies in supporting our learners. The ‘Available Adults’ work very hard to engage parents to support their children which continues to produce positive outcomes.  The Bridge is the central point of contact for all external agencies working alongside the school. Our most popular visitor to The Bridge is Chewy, the Therapy dog who visits every Wednesday to work with some of our pupils.

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Our aim for learners is to support them to become, or be able to be:

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• effective and confident, reciprocal communicators  

• able to express themselves effectively  

• make progress towards their own set targets 

• improve their learning, communication and social skills

• access the wider curriculum  

• motivated to learn

• develop self-esteem and confidence in their ability as learners 

• capable of to positively handling the barriers to their learning

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To achieve this aim, we offer the following interventions within our Bridge facility:

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• Thrive

• Talk About 

• Talk Fitness 

• Baxter Project 

• Bereavement group 

• PASS interventions 

• Mentoring sessions 

• Anger Management