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Supporting good mental health at school

What do we do to support good mental health at school

At our schools, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community (pupils, staff and parents) and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives in just the same way as physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and can affect their learning and achievement. We recognise that mental health and wellbeing is not the absence of mental health problems. The majority of children and young people have good mental wellbeing most of the time. The starting point should therefore be teaching pupils the factors that contribute to and help us maintain wellbeing. DfE Teaching mental well-being guidance – June 2020.

The Department for Education recognises that: “in order to help their pupils succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. Schools can be a place for children and young people to experience a nurturing and supportive environment that has the potential to develop self-esteem and give positive experiences for overcoming adversity and building resilience. For some, school will be a place of respite from difficult home lives and offer positive role models and relationships, which are critical in promoting pupils’ wellbeing and can help engender a sense of belonging and community.

Our role in school is to ensure that the children are able to manage times of change and stress, be resilient, are supported to reach their potential and access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that pupils learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues and where they can go if they need help and support.

Our aim is to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and be a school where:

  • All pupils are valued
  • Pupils have a sense of belonging and feel safe
  • Pupils feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma
  • Positive mental health is promoted and valued
  • Bullying is not tolerated

We use the World Health Organisation’s definition of mental health and wellbeing “a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”.

We want all children/young people to:

  • feel confident in themselves
  • be able to express a range of emotions appropriately
  • be able to make and maintain positive relationships with others
  • cope with the stresses of everyday life
  • manage times of stress and be able to deal with change
  • learn and achieve

“Mental health is not extracurricular” – Mental Health Foundation. This forms the foundation for the way that our schools support good mental health. We take a whole school approach to promoting positive mental health that aims to help pupils become more resilient, be happy and successful and prevent problems before they arise.

This encompasses 7 aspects:

1. Creating an ethos, policies and behaviours that support mental health and resilience that everyone understands

  • Our behaviour policy sets out to ensure that everyone; pupils, their families, staff and visitors to our school understands and adheres to school rules and expectations, and positively contributes towards making the school a pleasant, safe and productive place to learn. We recognise the effect a calm, organised and productive atmosphere has on a child’s learning, self- esteem and health. We are an inclusive school where we focus on the well-being and progress of every child and where all members of our community are of equal worth.
  • Behaviour expectations are consistent throughout the school. The behaviour policy is implemented across all year groups and children understand what is expected of them at all points throughout the school day.
  • All staff are asked to treat children fairly and sensitively, to listen to them, to hear both sides of any disagreements and help children sort problems out in a reasonable way. Staff should aim to organise life in the classroom in such a way that children always know what they should be doing and are able to work successfully at tasks appropriate to their level of ability. Within such a secure structure we are able to ensure that all children understand and can adhere to what is expected of them in terms of their behaviour.
  • We have clear routines throughout the school day. These are shared with the children and support their well-being by providing a straightforward schedule to their week.

2. Helping pupils to develop social relationships, support each other and seek help when they need to

  • Our PSHCE curriculum provides children with the tools to build positive relationships and respect people’s differences.
  • The curriculum nurtures a supportive environment and demonstrates to children how to be a good friend to somebody if they need help.
  • All children are encouraged to speak to an adult if they need support and are given descriptive praise for doing so.

3. Helping pupils to be resilient learners

  • Staff create a learning environment where children are not deterred by mistakes and are confident to persevere in their learning.
  • Children are told how to ask for help in their learning and how to correct mistakes.
  • Teachers provide clear feedback on children’s work and model ways to up-level or correct elements of it.

4. Teaching pupils social and emotional skills and an awareness of mental health

  • This is supported by our PSHCE curriculum.
  • A high quality and structured provision for PHSCE will give children knowledge, understanding, and skills and help them explore and develop attitudes and values to live healthy, safe, fulfilled and responsible lives. Our PHSCE curriculum supports children to manage feelings, learn about how to be healthy and safe and understand about relationships. It covers physical health, emotional health and well-being, drug education (including medicines, alcohol, tobacco, volatile substances and illegal drugs), sex and relationship education, citizenship, antibullying, safety (including e-safety and anti-bullying), personal finance education , careers and the environment .
  • We also organise themed weeks which are mapped across the curriculum which complement and enrich our planned PSHCE teaching programme. For example, Peace week, Equalities week, Anti-bullying week, Social Justice Week, Safety Week.
  • We set ground rules, particularly when teaching sensitive topics such as Relationships and Sex Education, to ensure that pupils discuss topics with respect and listen to the views of others, as well as ensuring that pupils and staff do not disclose personal information.
  • We recognise the role that stigma can play in preventing understanding and awareness of mental health issues and aim to create an open and positive culture that encourages discussion and understanding of mental health issues.

5. Effectively working with parents and carers

  • We recognise the important role parents and carers have in promoting and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their children, and in particular supporting their children with mental health needs.
  • On first entry to the school, our parent’s meeting includes a discussion on the importance of positive mental health for learning. We ask parents to inform us of any mental health needs their child has and any issues that they think might have an impact on their child’s mental health and wellbeing, based on a list of risk factors pertaining to the child or family. It is very helpful if parents and carers can share information with the school so that we can better support their child.
  • We provide information and websites on mental health issues and local wellbeing and parenting programmes and have produced leaflets for parents on mental health and resilience, which can be accessed on the school website. The information includes who parents can talk to if they have concerns about their own child or a friend of their child and where parents can access support for themselves.
  • We organise weekly coffee mornings for parents, during which we invite professionals from various fields to train parents on elements of their children’s learning. A large proportion of these are based on ways to promote positive mental health and what to do if a parent has any concerns.

6. Supporting and training staff to develop their skills and resilience

  • Our staff receive regular mental health training, including Mental Health First Aid and guidance from the Department for Education on the health element of the PSHCE curriculum.
  • We believe that all staff have a responsibility to promote positive mental health, and to understand about protective and risk factors for mental health. Some children will require additional help and all staff should have the skills to look out for any early warning signs of mental health problems and ensure that pupils with mental health needs get early intervention and the support they need.
  • All staff understand about possible risk factors that might make some children more likely to experience problems; such a physical long-term illness, having a parent who has a mental health problem,, death and loss, including loss of friendships, family breakdown and bullying. They also understand the factors that protect children from adversity, such as self-esteem, communication and problem-solving skills, a sense of worth and belonging and emotional literacy.

7. Early identification of pupils who have mental health needs and planning support to meet their needs, including working with specialist services

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