Mental Wellbeing
What can we do to keep our minds healthy?
At Haresfield Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff. 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 curriculum is designed to support children’s well-being, development of relationships and good mental health through a range of lessons and positive experiences including Random Acts of Kindness, PSHCE, woodland classroom, PE & Sports and Educational Visits. School council and the staff have recently worked with Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning team to look at positive playtimes and how we can support well-being during these times. The school council wrote an action plan to develop the 5 areas of well being in the playground. The action plan links to the NHS suggestion – “5 steps to Mental Wellbeing” shown below as little actions we can all build into our daily lives to boost our wellbeing.
As with any aspect of health education, discussion from an early age gives children the vital skills and understanding they need to draw upon when making life choices as independent young people and into adulthood – something that is really important to us at Haresfield School.
At our school we:
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 promote a mentally healthy environment through:
- Promoting our school values and encouraging a sense of belonging.
- Promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision-making
- Celebrating academic and non-academic achievements
- Providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
- Providing opportunities to reflect.
- Access to appropriate support that meets their needs.
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 personal mentors.
