Our School

At The District Primary School our aim is to care for and develop the whole child educationally, emotionally, spiritually, morally and physically. As well as caring for their education we also care for their mental health and wellbeing and feel that it is essential to provide children with information to enable them to make life long, well informed decisions about their diet and health.

At The District CE Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing of every member of our school community and recognise how important mental health and wellbeing is to our lives, as is physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health and overall wellbeing can affect their learning and achievement.

A key aspect of our role in school is to ensure that children are able to manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what can affect 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.

Positive wellbeing is promoted through the curriculum and all school activities. Through a carefully planned approach to PSHE our pupils are helped to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, and to become resilient, informed and responsible citizens.

In addition, whole school approaches such as assemblies and circle time sessions are used to further develop the pupils’ knowledge of strategies. Whole school events are held including Mental Health Awareness Week in May, World Mental Health Day in October, and Anti-bullying Week in November. During these events, the focus is on mindfulness and resilience with the purpose of teaching children strategies for dealing with anxiety and copying with changes.

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 nurture group or pastoral interventions.

How we support Mental Health and Wellbeing

At The District we take a whole school approach to promoting positive mental health, aiming to help children become more resilient, happy and successful and to work in a pro-active way to avoid problems arising. We do this by:

• Creating and applying consistent ethos, policies and behaviours that support mental health and resilience, and which everyone understands.
• Focusing on the 5 steps to wellbeing and ‘Zones of regulation’.
• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE)curriculum assists pupils to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world, manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.  The concepts covered in PSHE include identity, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, emotional and social well-being.
• Helping children to develop social relationships, support each other and seek help when they need it.
• Health and the arts are the focus of Wellbeing Wednesdays.
• Enrichment activities for the children to experience including: sports provision, music tuition and working with local artists.
• Promoting self-esteem and ensuring children understand their importance in the World.
• Helping children to be resilient learners and to manage setbacks.
• Teaching children social and emotional skills and an awareness of mental health. We include WorldMental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week in the school calendar and plan activities for the whole school community.
• We offer Nurture Provision for children who experience domestic violence, bereavement, anxiety and any other life experiences that may affect their emotional well-being are identified.
• To support children’s social and emotional development, and their well-being we offer a 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 and cater for a wide variety of interests.
• Identifying children who have mental health challenges and planning support to meet their needs, including working with specialist services, parents and carers.
• Supporting and training staff to develop their knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing.

Parents and Carers

Parents or carers should approach their child/children’s class teacher if they have any mental health concerns. In addition to offering universal support within school, we may also discuss with you additional support mechanisms available to you from the following agencies:

• School Nursing Service  healthforkids.co.uk(Interactive website for children and parents)
• CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service)
• School Family Worker
• Barnardo’s
• Behaviour Improvement Team
• Child psychologists