Mental Health

It is widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and wellbeing influences their cognitive development and learning as well as their physical and social health and their mental wellbeing in adulthood.

Good mental health is important for helping children and young people to develop and thrive.

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in fundamental changes to the lives of children and young people. Schools have an important role to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils by developing approaches tailored to their particular needs.

Taking a coordinated and evidence-informed approach to mental health and wellbeing in schools and colleges can also help foster readiness to learn.

Miss Smith is the School’s Mental Health Lead and is trained as a Senior Mental Health Lead. Her training will support us in the best way to enhance our provision of the 8 principles to promoting a whole school and college approach to mental health and wellbeing

Healthy Minds - What We Do:

Nurture	A short term, focused intervention which addresses barriers to learning arising from social, emotional or behavioural difficulties (SEBD), in an inclusive manner.
The Castle	An inclusive group where children are encouraged to develop valuable life skills, independence and confidence. Everyone is able to achieve their great thing! Children complete a range of personal challenges including first aid, cookery, domestic challenges, caring for others, making a presentation, playing board games, learning about and visiting places of work and many other fun things.
Time to talk	A programme specifically created to teach and develop social interaction skills and improve oral language skills for children. By developing communication skills children will be able to improve their understanding of the curriculum, develop friends and learn to co-operate with others.
Sensory room	A multi-sensory environment next to our Nursey provision to stimulate senses, promote pleasure and feelings if well-being.
Daily Mile	A social physical activity, with children walking, running or jogging – at their own pace – in the fresh air with friends. The Daily Mile can experience various health and wellbeing benefits and improved outcomes, including: · reduced anxiety and stress · improved cognition · improved fitness and energy levels · greater concentration levels in class · experience of being outdoors in all seasons/weather · lower levels of obesity/weight reduction · increased confidence and levels of happiness
Little box of calm	Each class has their own Calm Down Box that contains a variety of sensory tools that children are encouraged to use when they are feeling frustrated or have big emotions. The items inside the box help a child to self-regulate, calm down and control their energy level, emotions, behaviours and attention.
Time to be me	An emotional wellbeing programme to improve social and emotional aspects to development provided by Howgill.
ELSA therapy	An emotional literacy programme that focuses on developing high self-esteem and positive interactions with others, which in turn, helps children focus better on their learning. A positive mental health results in happy, confident and resilient children.
Playground Play leader	At dinner time a Play Leader is responsible for ensuring there is a safe, fun, active and stimulating place for children to freely play as well as leading specific activities and teaching children new skills. The Play leader can promote various health and wellbeing benefits and improved outcomes, including: • Improve general levels of health and fitness • Improve levels of co-operation and trust / self-control / greater inclusion • Improve co-ordination, speed, reaction, strength, endurance • Provide more opportunities for better social interaction • Develop language and listening skills • Help children find activities they enjoy doing and have FUN! • Give more opportunities to be successful, and raise confidence and self-esteem.
After School clubs	Gymnastics, dance, games and art afterschool clubs are help to build confidence, independence, fitness and are source of joy where friendships flourish and everyone can achieve their great thing!
Friendship bench	Our Friendship Benches were bought using money fundraised during our mental health day last year. They provide a safe space to talk, to find a sense of belonging and to connect with people who understand.
Positive affirmations	Positive affirmations are positive statements that we tell ourselves for self-motivation or to challenge negative thoughts. Each morning our teachers read out a positive affirmation which we all repeat to hep us feel good about ourselves and embrace our positive qualities.
Mental health focused days	Our Mental Health Awareness Days are an important opportunity for us to check in with ourselves, our children and colleagues and to think about what we can do to promote good mental health in our schools. We love to get everyone talking about mental health and used our mental health days as an opportunity to make mental health a priority in our school.
Gratitude/Giving projects	We love to put the mental health and wellbeing needs of our school community and wider community first. This year we have enjoyed raising money for numerous charities, preparing operation Christmas boxes, visited our elderly friends at Bethany House, made Christmas cards for the hospital, delivered special messages and pictures to our local community, sang at our local library, helped pick litter and tidy up our local area and much more.
School councillors	Our school council provides a meaningful way in which pupils can voice their opinions and have their views considered in decisions that impact upon them. With support and nurture helps our school council helps to improve many aspects of our school life and provide leadership and development opportunities for their pupils.
Get active days	Staying active is vital for young people’s physical and mental health and can also improve behaviour and concentration. We love having days where we learn about how to keep fit and healthy and learn new skills such as football, cricket and rugby etc
Visiting Bethany House	Our reception children volunteer as befrienders at our local home for the elderly. They love using their skills to make a difference to older people's lives bring generations together. They have loved learning new skills, meeting new people, forging amazing friendships and spreading a little cheer to those who need it most!
Classroom prayer space	Each classroom has a Prayer space which enables children and young people, of all faiths and none, to reflect upon and explore life’s questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, quiet, creative and interactive way.
Learning animals	Our leaning animals explicatable teach children how to be a successful, motivated, confident and resilient learners. We used these animals in all our lessons and each week our star learner is rewarded for their good attitude to learning and no matter what our ability- we all have been able to achieve our great thing!
Out of school experiences	Our carefully planned and sequenced school trips and out of school experience are not only about engaging children with a topic and acquiring knowledge to move learning forward; we believe they also nurture the development of children’s interpersonal skills. Children are free to explore, enjoy the fresh air, take age-appropriate risks, build connections with their peers, get away from screens and enjoy growing into being leaders. What a great way to boost self-esteem, confidence and achieve our great thing!
Wish Lists	In St Gregory and St Patrick’s Catholic Infant school we want to celebrate the uniqueness of us all and share our difference and individualism. Our ‘wish lists’ helps us to share our cultures, traditions, family heritage and experiences and makes sure that every child has the chance to do something special and achieve their great thing.
PhunkyFoods	W used the PhunkyFoods program to improve the dietary and physical activity habits of our children. Rapid increases in childhood obesity prevalence means that we must help empower children, alongside their families and communities, to take control over their wellbeing to enable them to live longer, healthier and more fulfilled lives.
HRSE curriculum	Our HRSE curriculum is designed to enable our children to become healthy, independent and responsible members of society. This teaching helps children to understand how they are developing personally and socially and provide them with the knowledge and skills to tackle many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up.
Kids Safe	Our specially trained member of staff delivers Kidsafe UK throughout our school. The aim, through child centred, age-appropriate education, is to help children recognise and speak out about any situation that has a negative impact on their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Life Skills for Proactive Mental Health

Our children are currently being trained to use 'The Decider' Life Skills. These are 12 Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills designed to be taught using a fun, creative and interactive style. Taken from the original 32 Skills, and simplified further for use as proactive mental health for our children the Life Skills can also be used as a waiting list or brief therapeutic intervention and as part of a treatment plan.