Wellbeing

What is emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health?

‘Emotional wellbeing describes your mental state - how you are feeling and how well you can cope with day-to-day life. Emotional wellbeing is essential for us to function and be happy.’ Mental health is defined as a 'state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential’

Mind, 2018

Rationale

Mental Health and Wellbeing should encourage pupils to explore and clarify their beliefs, attitudes and values; develop personal and interpersonal skills and increase their knowledge and understanding of a range of health issues.

Mental Health and Well being is not the responsibility of any one teacher or subject, but is best addressed through contributions from a range of teachers in a number of curricular areas.

Health and Wellbeing is concerned with the development of life skills and life-long learning. Through these life skills pupils should learn to make formal choices taking account of the outcomes and experiences covered in the following areas: 

• Mental, Emotional, Social and Physical wellbeing
• Planning for Choices and Changes
• Food and Health

This school is committed to the health and well being of everyone here and we work together with parents and the local community to enable pupils to make healthy informed choices.

Aims

Our school aims to enable our children, staff, parents and everyone working in partnership with the school to develop their knowledge and understanding, skills, capabilities and attributes necessary for mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing, now and in the future.

• To work in partnership with our community to further develop provision and strengthen the school

• Nurture children's spiritual, mental, social, physical and moral development through our values ethos

• Ensure equal access to all pupils through inclusive practice strengthening provision  

• Raise attainment for all pupils and ensure they make at least expected progress.

Curriculum organisation 

Emotional health and well-being cover the spectrum of activities in school and the range of educational and health/ welfare agencies who support our children. Our school is proactive in its approach and welcomes opportunities to promote emotional health and well-being through the formal and informal curriculum. Staff use a variety of methods for ensuring sound emotional health and well-being for children. These complement and reflect the overall aims and philosophy of the school.

Our approach includes: 

• Class teaching and reinforcement of our school values
• Clearly identified rewards and sanctions, understood by all
• Rewarding positive behaviour and achievement
• Setting appropriately challenging tasks
• Providing a forum for listening and talking, e.g. using circle time as a tool for personal, social and health education and citizenship
• Encouraging co-operation and collaboration
• Developing social competence
• Encouraging and developing coping strategies and resilience 

The school places emphasis on problem-solving, positive self-assessment, time for reflection, quality feedback and encouragement to participate in school and community events.

The delivery of personal, social and health education and citizenship is fundamental to our promotion of emotional health. Through the planned programmes and informal curriculum, opportunities exist to explore issues appropriate to children’s ages and stages of development. Staff deal sensitively with these issues and differentiate according to the varying needs of the children in their care.

We see parental involvement as a vital part of emotional well-being.

Regular opportunities exist to promote partnership with parents, including: 

•  Parents’ Evenings twice a year
•  Weekly homework opportunities
•  Regular parent workshops 
•  Annual parental questionnaires, to help us build on what we do best and identify areas for improvement

 Pastoral organisation for pupils 

We pride ourselves on the great care that is given to all pupils in our school. Our methods include:

• Recognising and responding positively to a child’s emotional and/ or behavioural needs
• Communicating with parents positively and realistically to create a partnership approach to children’s emotional health and well-being
• Liaising with appropriate agencies to enlist advice and/or support
• Highly effective Teaching Assistant Support 
• Home school link worker who supports children and families
• ELSA support for children with varying emotional needs

Alongside the high quality in class pastoral support, we have skilled and committed specialist Teaching Assistants who work together to support individuals and groups throughout the school.

Clear policies for Child Protection, Anti-Bullying and Attendance are promoted in school. Together, they provide the foundations for emotional health and well-being. 

Alongside our policies are a range of practices to promote well health:

• Clear transition arrangements
• School Council with elected membership from all year groups
• Reward systems - use of planet system, wow cards, celebration assemblies, house points
• A highly effective behaviour policy 

We actively promote the support that can be provided by a range of agencies. Where appropriate, our behaviour team may become involved to support a child experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties; we recognise the effectiveness of our early intervention approach and our commitment to pastoral care for all. 

At Barnsbury Primary School & Nursery we are committed to supporting pupils at risk.  

Healthy Eating

The school will actively encourage a healthy approach to eating.  Staff in the dining room will encourage pupils to try new foods and to eat a healthy lunch. When cooking or baking in school a balance must be struck between sweet and savoury dishes.  

Growth Mind Set

The growth mind-set culture truly encapsulates our Believe, Persevere, Succeed motto and is helping both staff and children to consider learning in a different way. The children understand that in order to learn they must be brave and make mistakes and this allows them to tackle challenges they wouldn't have attempted before. We truly believe a fixed mind-set is a huge barrier to learning and by developing growth mind-sets at Barnsbury we will ensure children do not give up, relish a challenge, learn from mistakes and persevere until they see success.   The success of this culture is seen through attitudes in every classroom, where both children and adults challenge themselves daily to progress and learn.  Growth Mind-set is promoted through displays, assemblies, and stories.