Mental Health ,Well-Being & Safety
We have adopted a whole federation approach to supporting positive mental health and wellbeing, putting it at the heart of our communities. This has been acheived through the following ways:
-Our PSHE curriculum is integral to our curriculum and lays the foundations for personal development and well being. Our curriculum is underpinned by a core emphasis on the effective development of personal, social, health and emotional skills. We believe explicit teaching of these skills will support our children to be confident in their learning approaches, applied strategies and communication with others. This will develop mutual respect and acceptance of others as well as develop skills and strategies to manage a positive mental health and well being as they move through to teenage years and beyond.
-We have peer mentors. Peer mentoring is a form of support where pupils are matched with a mentor. The mentor provides support to the mentee on a one-to-one basis, offering a listening ear and support to talk to an adult. Research shows that peer mentoring has been shown to be an effective intervention for mental health support in schools.
-We have a whole federation commitment to pupil voice which means listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all children and young people. This is lived through peer mentors, head pupils, school council, eco council as well as weekly assemblies led and chaired by the school council chairperson. Our peer mentors are specifically trained for this role.
-Growth mindset is an important part of our culture. We know that pupils who have a positive attitude towards their learning will make good progress and be successful. We want all our pupils to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process, value the importance of effort, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This will help them to achieve, not only with us, but also in their future lives as adults.
-Metacognition and self regulation strategies are used to encourage children to think about their own learning more explicitly, usually by teaching them to set goals and monitor and evaluate their own academic progress. These strategies will also enable pupils to cope with more stressful periods such as learning at high school, exams and can even be applied in their personal lives.
-For children who need intervention and support to maintain a positive mental health, we help by providing sessions within school, for example-developing calming straegies or working through Anxiety Gremlins text. We are also able to make referrals to specialist support services too. Of course, this will always be done together with the family.
-Teaching children health and safety is another important aspect in maintaining positive mental health and well being. We are lucky to have the coast nearby so water safety is essential for children. In the summer, we teach them about sun safety too. Our online safety curriculum also supports children to learn about how to stay safe online.