Mental Health & Well-being

Our aim is for every child to leave our school as kind, respectful, emotionally intelligent members of the community who are equipped to deal with the wider world. We are committed to supporting the emotional health and well-being of our pupils, parents and staff. Everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable, and anyone may need additional emotional support. Positive mental health is everybody’s business and we all have a role to play. We understand that school plays a vital role in supporting staff and children’s mental health and well-being. We all have mental health and we believe it is important that children and staff are encouraged and supported to talk about and look after their mental health every day.

We are committed to supporting all pupils to be healthy and happy, regardless of their starting point. Our curriculum is designed to prepare children for life-long physical and emotional well-being. We encourage pupils to lead an active lifestyle and to be aware of the importance of a healthy balanced diet and regular physical activity. We give pupils opportunities to develop strategies and skills for positive well-being, developing self-esteem, successful relationships and a sense of belonging. Children explore self-awareness and managing emotions through a mindful curriculum.

We offer different levels of support:

Universal Support- To meet the needs of all our pupils  through our overall ethos and our wider curriculum. For instance by developing skills to manage personal well being.

Additional support- For those who may have short term needs and those who may have been made vulnerable by life experiences such as bereavement. 

Targeted support-  For pupils who need more differentiated support and resources or specific targeted interventions such as nurture groups or ELSA interventions.

Specialist support- Referral to external specialist services like CAMHS for pupils with highly specialist needs.

We are a caring, nurturing, ‘close-knit’ school and have a number of strategies in place to universally support all pupils to manage their emotions and mental health. These include the following:

• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Relationship, Health and Sex Education (RHSE) are central to the curriculum across the school. PSHE and RHSE assist children to develop positive relationships and cope with changes within their lives and involving their body, introduces them to a wider world and the language of choice, helps to manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.
• Half-termly 'Feel Good Fridays' where they whole school is off-timetable, completing well-being activities based around a theme. We regularly invite visitors in to support with this. For example, so far this year we have had a mindfulness themed day where we invited a local yoga teacher and we have also had a day focusing on the well-being of others, where we held a coffee afternoon and invited grandparents, as well as residents from local care homes.
• The Computing and PHSE curriculum covers E-Safety, promoting how to stay safe online.
• Having several points of contact including Miss Bramble, who has undertaken Department for Education Senior Mental Health Lead training.
• Our school values are referenced to support children on a daily basis and are an engrained element of the school culture and ethos. We believe all of our children are GREAT – Gracious, Resilient, Empathetic, Ambitious and Thoughtful.
• Well-being Assemblies celebrate differences and we openly discuss mental health and well-being, topics relating to this and how to support themselves and others, when to seek help etc and enable open discussion for all alongside the knowledge that there is a network of support surrounding them.
• Healthy school eating is encouraged and the menu is regularly being reviewed and improved.
• Outdoor learning is something we are increasingly trying to prioritise, through the OPAL scheme for lunchtimes and ‘Welly Wednesday’ sessions for EYFS.
• Educational visits and residential visits support outdoor learning and co-operative learning, where children are supported to access their local area and work outside of the confines of the school environment, further enriching their cultural capital.
• We follow a restorative, relationship building approach to behaviour management. Please see our behaviour policy for further information.
• We value every pupils voice and provide them with opportunities to have their say (e.g. School Council, Rights Rangers).
• Regular questionnaires are conducted with staff, parent/carers and children. These are analysed and then relevant action is taken.

Our next Parent/Carer Mental Health and Well-being workshop will take place on Tuesday 17^th December from 9:00am-10:00am. The focus for this workshop will be:

- What is mental health?

- Understanding the why

- Emotional Literacy

- Relationship focused strategies