The Well being Award for Schools

The Well-being Award for Schools

This year, we continue to work hard towards achieving the Well-being Award for Schools.  It is an award that recognises a school’s efforts to promote and protect positive emotional well-being and mental health education and support.

The award requires us to develop an action plan.  This enables us to consciously recognise what we currently do.  It also encourages us to consider ways to offer additional opportunities to support and promote mental health and well-being for our school community.

As a school we are committed to gaining a fuller understanding of emotional well-being and mental health.  We look forward to using the priorities set in the Well-being Award to showcase the good practice which currently takes place in our school, to consider future provision and as a tool for well-being to become embedded in the long term culture of Pakeman.

About the Award

Through this award we aim to:

Show commitment to promoting mental health as part of school life
Improve the emotional wellbeing of their staff and pupils
Ensure mental health problems are identified early and appropriate support provided
Offer provision and interventions that match the needs of pupils and staff
Engage the whole-school community in the importance of mental health awareness
Capture the views of parents, pupils and teachers on mental health issues
Throughout the award accreditation process we will be working to demonstrate:

NETWORKING: Having systems and external partnerships in place to support different types of emotional and mental health needs
PARTICIPATION: Working with the whole school community to support emotional wellbeing and mental health.
A POSITIVE ETHOS AND CULTURE: Ensuring that emotional wellbeing and mental health is regarded as the responsibility of all.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Commitment to high-quality, ongoing professional development on emotional wellbeing and mental health.
SUPPORT FOR STAFF WELL-BEING: Actively promoting staff emotional wellbeing and mental health.
VISION & STRATEGY: Commit to a clear vision and strategy of how the school will promote and protect emotional wellbeing and mental health.

 

The Change Well-being Team

We have set up a new well-being team who will be auditing existing practice, developing an action plan and implementing the necessary improvements to help us to become even better at supporting emotional well-being and mental health across the whole school community.

Arlene Scott (Wellbeing and Communications Lead)
Tracey Gulliford (Inclusion Lead / SLT)
Marcia Harris (Child and Family Support Worker)
Amal Esselmi (Parent-Governor)
Molly Flowers (Parent-Governor)
James O’Shea (Class Teacher and PHSE Lead)
Gill Dukelow (School Business Manager)
Emma Bonnin (Head Teacher)
Rachel Neville (Art Therapist)
Nerissa McDonald (Art Therapist)

 

Pupil Well-being Champions

We plan to have a team of Pupil Well-being Champions. The role of a Well-being Champions will be to help and support by:

Being a positive role model
Promoting a healthy lifestyle
Discussing ideas for wellbeing events
Being someone that can listen, support people and ask for help
Being a good communicator and feeding back ideas to the class/group

Mental Health & Well-being Statement

At Pakeman Primary, our school motto is ‘Excellence for All and Excellence from All”. We have high aspirations and ambitions for our children. We believe that there are “no limits” to what our children can achieve and that no child should be left behind, “it’s not about where you come from but what you can achieve that makes the difference between success and failure”.

We believe that well-being is central to this success and we work hard to effectively support the positive emotional health and well-being of our pupils, staff, and parents/carers.

We understand well-being as “a state of being comfortable, healthy and happy”.

Mental health affects how we feel, think and act. It refers to our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Our mental health can change and fluctuate on a daily basis and over time, and can be affected by a range of factors. Just as it’s important to look after our physical health, the same is true for our mental health. Our state of well-being affects how we cope with stress, relate to others, make choices, and play a part in family life, our community, the workplace and among friends.

Not everyone can feel happy all of the time, so we aim to provide a network of support for everyone to access in a way that is relevant and appropriate to their needs and feelings.  This is achieved through our specially trained staff, our links to partner agencies and through highly effective communication.

What we do to support well-being

We adopt a whole school strategic approach to mental health and well-being. A well-being team helps to ensure all stakeholders are involved and that there is a continual drive for improvement, underpinned by effective systems for evaluating the strengths and further areas for development of the school.

We are committed to creating a happy, caring and supportive environment. The school ensures there is a positive, nurturing and inclusive ethos where children can thrive and achieve their personal best.

Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is a central part of our curriculum.  We believe that the concepts covered in PSHE can support children to better understand their identity, manage feelings and emotions, build relationships, cope with change, build resilience and stay healthy (physically, emotionally and socially).

1:1 or small group nurture support is provided for targeted children who are struggling socially and emotionally.

Art therapists work more intensively with children who are experiencing significant life stresses.

Within the National Curriculum, every child has a minimum of two hours of physical education each week. This is taught by our experienced PE Teacher, who also organises a range of before and after school sports activities.

We promote healthy eating throughout the school and have been awarded the Healthy Schools Mark.

To support children’s social and emotional development, and their well-being we offer an extensive range of after-school clubs – all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life.  Activities are designed to be fun, build confidence and resilience and cater for a wide variety of interests.

Regular pupil progress meetings and pastoral care meetings are used to carefully monitor the well-being of our children so that appropriate targeted support can be provided.

The Inclusion Manager is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and meets with children and their parents regularly.

We include World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week in the school calendar and plan activities for the whole school community.

A programme of very targeted Alternative Provision (such as choir, gardening, art and carpentry) is on offer to build confidence and self-esteem, foster talent and expand children’s experiences.  Restrictions due to Covid 19 have put limitations on these.

A wide range of well-being events are on offer for children (after-school activities, cinema nights, bedtime reading sessions, yoga, Go Noodle Mindfulness) and for staff (book club, weekends away, shared lunches, pilates) and for parents……(Bollywood dancing, share lunches, mindfulness). Restrictions due to Covid 19 have put limitations on these.

All staff have training in supporting children’s well-being; (e.g. Restorative Justice, Trauma Informed Practice and Mental Health First Aid) and well-being remains a school improvement focus for the school.

As a school, we have and continue to access outside help and support for pupils when required, such as links to support networks locally and signposting to national charities. We have a CAMHS clinician available in school for consultation, support and training.

School Council help to support and promote well-being by discussing health and well-being issues raised.