In brief
When your child boards, you see their life in pieces: a phone call, a weekend at home, a report at the end of term. You may sense something has changed before you can say what it is. They sound flat on the phone. They’ve stopped mentioning friends. Their grades slip, or they ask to come home more often.
From a distance, it’s hard to know whether this is a difficult few weeks or something that needs support. Settling in is one transition. Living away from home, term after term, is another. Synapse helps you act early, wherever you are.
Your child works one to one with a Behavioural Health Coach. Coaching combines emotional support with practical skills: managing stress, sleeping well, getting work started and finished, handling exam pressure, managing friendships and coping with isolation.
Friendships matter even more when you board. There is no going home at the end of the day, so when a friendship goes wrong, a young person can feel alone in a house full of people. A Behavioural Coach helps them make sense of what is happening, rebuild confidence with others and find people and activities that help them feel they belong.
Every Coach has lived experience young people relate to, and many are close in age to the young people they support. Every Coach was educated at an independent school and has been to university, so the world your child lives in is familiar to them. We match each young person with their Coach carefully, and your child meets their Coach before deciding to go ahead.
Sessions fit around the school week. With your consent and the school’s, in-person sessions can take place at school, arranged around lessons, sport and prep. Online sessions work wherever your child is, so coaching carries on through exeats, half term and the holidays, whether they’re with you, with their guardian or overseas. Most programmes run for 10 to 12 weekly sessions.
No. Synapse does not teach subjects or help with the content of schoolwork. That stays with your child’s teachers, and any tutor you already use.
A Behavioural Coach works on what gets in the way of learning: exam stress, everyday worries, poor sleep, low confidence, difficulty getting started and feeling alone. A child who feels steadier usually finds it easier to concentrate, start work and keep going, so the effort they put in, and the teaching they already have, goes further.
Many boarders have parents living outside the UK and a UK guardian who looks after them at weekends and in some holidays. The further away you are, the harder it is to see when your child is struggling, and the harder it is to arrange help.
We work with families wherever they live. You can speak to Mollie by phone or video at a time that suits your time zone. With your agreement, we include your child’s UK guardian, so the adult closest to your child knows what is happening and how to help. When your child flies home for the holidays, online coaching comes with them, and the progress made in term carries on.
Guardians and education consultants are welcome to contact us about a pupil in their care. We involve the parents from the first conversation.
With your consent, we keep the school and the school doctor informed of progress. Coaching sits alongside the school’s own pastoral care, health centre and counselling. If a safeguarding concern arises, we share it with the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, as set out in our safeguarding policy.
Clinical supervision is provided by Dr Harriet Mellotte, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, with Professor Sandeep Ranote FRCPsych as Senior Clinical Advisor. Each young person’s care plan is reviewed weekly. Every Behavioural Coach has an enhanced DBS check, is trained in safeguarding and is supervised weekly. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead is Mollie Royds. If your child needs specialist support beyond coaching, we will tell you and help arrange it.
If you need help urgently. If someone is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to A&E. For urgent advice, call NHS 111. See our urgent support page for other services.
If you’re concerned about a pupil, you can suggest Synapse to their parents or guardian, or contact us on the family’s behalf. Synapse is parent-funded, so the school pays nothing, and a phone call or email is all it takes to refer. For clinical questions, contact Thomas Watt-Pringle, Assistant Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead, at thomas@synapsehealth.co.uk.
Start with a conversation with Mollie Royds, our Head of Client Experience and Care Management. It is at no charge, with no commitment, and you decide afterwards whether to go ahead. Mollie replies within one working day. The clinical assessment usually takes place within a week, and your child’s care plan follows three days later.
