Mental Health & Well-being 

Over the course of their education, children spend over 7,800 hours at school.  With such a huge amount of time spent in the classroom, schools provide an ideal environment for promoting good emotional well-being and identifying early behaviour changes and signs of mental distress. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom can help them to build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their mental health throughout their lives.  Emotional well-being is a clear indicator of academic achievement, success and satisfaction in later life. Evidence shows that mental health and wellbeing programmes in schools, can lead to significant improvements in children’s mental health, and social and emotional skills. 

As a school, we take mental health and well-being seriously. We are committed to supporting the emotional health and well-being of our pupils. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play. 

Our Healthy Living Scheme of work provides an effective curriculum for well-being. Children are enabled to develop the vocabulary and confidence needed to clearly articulate their thoughts and feelings in a climate of openness, trust and respect, and know when and how they can seek the support of others. 

At our school we:                                                                                                                  

• help children to understand their emotions and feelings better
• help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
• help children socially to form and maintain relationships
• promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they count
• encourage children to be confident and ‘dare to be different’
• help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks

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, developing resilience for all.

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 wellbeing groups or ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)