Support & Wellbeing

Care, guidance and support underpins all that we do.

Ensuring that all of our pupils and students receive timely and appropriate support is a key priority of Mercia Academy. We strongly believe that care, guidance and support is most effective when students receive help early and at a level according to their individual needs.  

All of our students have a Form Tutor. Our team of tutors see the children every morning and have an overview of the whole child. They are supported by our fantastic team of Heads of House and Learning Managers, and these key members of staff are available should students or parents/carers have any pastoral questions.  

The pastoral team works with class teachers and non-teaching professionals who can identify need and implement early intervention. We have specifically trained staff who support students with anger management, bereavement and loss and low self-esteem, amongst others.  

Our pastoral team are: 

  • Assistant Principal: Mr A Black 
  • Senior Lead for Safeguarding and Emotional Well-Being: Mrs M Payne 
  • Family Resource Worker: Mrs G Francis 
  • Careers Lead: Mrs C Copley
  • SENDCo: Mrs K Westwood 
  DARWIN NIGHTINGALE GRESLEY
Head of House Mr J Chamberlain Mr S Walley Ms E Embley
Learning Manager Ms K Pipes Ms C SMith Ms P Carter

Within all of our schools there are clear, structured levels of support. We work together with external agencies to provide targeted and specialist support; these include:  

  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)  
  • Autism Outreach  
  • The Educational Psychology Service  
  • Joined Up Care Derbyshire 
  • Derbyshire SEND Support 
  • Derbyshire Wish 
  • The Elm Foundation 
  • Trent PTS 
  • Social Services  
  • The Police  
  • The NHS  

The ParentWise page on the UK Government website has some useful information for direct parents to who are struggling to support or understand their teenager at home. https://parentwise.campaign.gov.uk/