Welcome
Learning Mentor Information 
Information for parents, carers and children
Hello, I am Mrs. Dewhirst and I am the Learning Mentor at Great Wood Primary School. 
I am not a teacher.
I work with children who have a problem or issues that are having a negative impact on their ability to learn and reach their full potential in school.
I find out how best children can be supported.
It may help to just have a chat about a child’s worries.
I can support children who are being affected by events in their life e.g. Bereavement, Parental separation, Moving house and transitions such as preparing for High school.
I might work with them on their own, in their class or in a small group.
I work within the school offering support to children and families that affect their progress. I liaise closely with staff in school and with outside agencies such as Health, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), Child Action Northwest (CANW), Barnardo’s and New Start- Therapeutic support for children.
I work closely with the Children and family wellbeing service, they bring together a range of former services that work with children, young people and families, including:
- children’s centres
- the Young People’s Service,
- Prevention and Early Help
By doing this, the service is able to offer a wide range of support across the 0-19yrs+ age range (25 years for SEND) with a ‘whole family’ approach.
The service identifies as early as possible when a child, young person or family needs support, helping them to access services to meet their needs, working with them to ensure the support offered is right for them, is offered in the right place, and at the right time. The main focus of the service is to provide an enhanced level of support to individual children, young people or families with higher levels of need.
At Great Wood we also have access to Barnardo’s Mental Health Support Team (MHST).
Mel Sattherthwaite is in school every Thursday as a part of Barnardo’s Mental Health Support Team (MHST). The team is commissioned by the NHS, and supports children and young people in schools across Morecambe and surrounding areas.
Mel can support children and young people with their emotional health and wellbeing by providing one to one care for difficulties such as worry, low mood, anxiety and phobias. She also delivers Parent Led Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) sessions, enabling parents to support children who are experiencing anxiety.
How can children get my help?- Teachers might ask for my help, Parents/carers can talk to me about any concerns by either phoning the school office 01524 416971, emailing me learningmentor@greatwood.lancs.sch.uk or asking the class teacher for me to contact you.
Children can also directly approach me. I am on the playground every lunch time for the children to talk to and I am based in the Sunshine room in school which is opposite the year 6 classroom. My room is a quiet room where groupwork and one to one work can take place. There is a quiet area with a sofa and beanbags and lots of resources for the children to access.