Mental Health & Wellbeing
Physical and mental wellbeing is one of our key priorities throughout our school community. We strongly believe that children need to be happy, learn to be resilient and feel good to thrive and learn. Over the last two years, we have embarked on a journey to establish a whole school approach to the teaching of what ‘good’ mental health and wellbeing is. Wellbeing is embedded throughout our ethos and values and curriculum.
The aim of teaching pupils about physical health and mental wellbeing is to give them the information that they need to make good decisions about their own health and wellbeing.
Physical Health and Mental Wellbeing (Primary and Secondary) July 2020 Gov.UK
We teach that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health. We have a whole school approach to developing the children’s understanding of emotions and how to self-regulate through using the Zones of Regulation which we have adapted to reflect our children’s needs.
Zones of Regulation
During the 2019-20 academic year, we introduced the concept of the Zones of Regulation to all the children. The aim of this was to teach the children about the vast range of human emotions, how their bodies feel when they feel these emotions and how to successfully manage these feelings. The Zones of Regulation allow children to think of 4 different zones: blue, green, yellow and red. Within each zone there is a range of different emotions and how they may make you feel.
How to regulate our emotions
We teach that there are no bad zones or bad emotions but just emotions that if understood can be managed so that our choices about our behaviour remains good.
We learn about what may trigger us all in having an emotional response which in turn may affect the choices we all make in how we behave. Additionally, we learn about how ‘big the problem’ is which triggers a response and with the older children talk about if the response was appropriate for the trigger. Children are taught about different tools they can use in their toolkits to help them. Here are some examples of tools for their toolkits. Parents and Carers are encouraged to talk to their children about these zones and their child’s toolkit.
We learn about the 5 ways to wellbeing in school.
Click here for the link for more information:
Here are some ways that we encourage our children to use the 5 ways to wellbeing.
1. Connect
• talk to your friends and family
• help a friend or neighbour
• eat a meal with your family
• make a new friend
• say hello
• bake some cakes and share them
2. Be Active
• Running the daily mile
• Being active at play times
• Scootering, biking or walking to school
• Representing our school in sport
• Taking part in sport out of school
• Being active at home like dancing to their favourite song.
3. Take notice
• look what they can see out of the window and how the view changes
• paint or draw a picture of what they’ve seen today
• think about how they are feeling today
• listen to the sounds of nature like the wind and rain
• play I spy
• notice how their friends or family are feeling today
4. Keep learning
• learn a new word each day
• visit a museum or art gallery
• try out a musical instrument
• do a word search
• try a new food
• learn to cook a new recipe
• study an animal or bug
• visit a new place
• write a story or song
5. Give
• smile and say thank you
• make a homemade present or card for no reason
• hold a door open for someone
• give someone you love a hug
• send your old toys to a charity shop
• share with others
• help around the house – wash the dishes or do some dusting
• listen to someone else and how they are feeling
Curriculum
From January 2021 we have been teaching a new curriculum in accordance with the Government’s Relationships Guidance July 2020 document. Please see our scheme of work for full detail of the content covered in each year group. We additionally teach specific Mental Health and Wellbeing lessons. Mental Health and Wellbeing is interwoven through a large proportion of our curriculum including Science, PSHCE, PE, RE and English. It is a focus for assemblies and throughout the year we recognise and participate in termly events such as Wear Yellow Day (Young Minds), Children’s Mental Health Week (Place2Be) and Mental Health Awareness Week (Mental Health Foundation).
Support
Mental Health and Wellbeing is everyone’s responsibility at Hugglescote.
We have a designated Pastoral team consisting of:
Mental Health, Wellbeing and Pastoral Leader – Nicky Walker (Deputy Headteacher, DSL and Adult and Child Mental Health First Aider)
SENCO and Inclusion Leader – Donna Kirby (SENCO and DSL)
Behaviour Leader- Richard Ward (MLD leader and KS2 Leader)
Family Support Worker – Louise Galdes (HLTA and Child Mental Health First Aider)
ELSA – Vicky Senior (LSA, Midday Supervisor Manger, Breakfast Club Manger and Child Mental First Aider)
Mental Health and Wellbeing Governor – Rachel Wharrad (Chair of Governors and Adult Mental Health First Aider)
Adult Mental Health First Aider – Fatemah Rajabali (Business Manager)
Children may have individual 1:1 support, support in groups and also be supported with their parents/carers.
Community Mental Health and Wellbeing Champions
• We have a group of parents/carers who support the school in our Mental Health and Wellbeing work.
• We have class Wellbeing Champions
• Mental Health and Wellbeing is always part of our Governing Meeting agendas
• We are part of a local network of schools who meet regularly.
Resources for help with your child’s Mental Health and Wellbeing.
A guide for children, young people and families with emotional, mental health and wellbeing needs is available online. The directory provides information on a range of general and specialist NHS mental health services for young people, including online and telephone support, together with top tips for children and families and details of youth groups as well as support available from local councils. Produced by Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Groups (LLR CCGs), the directory is intended to encourage and support young people to get the help they need. The directory complements the existing award-winning local NHS health promotion websites for children and young people, which host a range of information and advice around physical and mental health, including details of local services and organisations for support. You can find these on www.healthforkids.co.uk and www.healthforteens.co.uk
The directory is available online at https://app.weduc.co.uk/get/external/p/id/31403074cf51616a463a191b46a66f4a52c48b9fefc3665613144cf71be09ce1.pdf
Wellbeing Strategy https://app.weduc.co.uk/get/external/p/id/0b71229f23ff08c91d4050930421050ff682ff2a26e43f22b261d8054cc2bf6c.pdf