We very much see our role as partners in your child’s personal development as including that of supporting them in their and emotional development. Our extensive Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education curriculum and our strong focus on encouraging children to participate in physical activity are long-standing features of our ethos. Around 5 years ago, we decided to expand our repertoire of skills to include the offer of in-house mental health support (including emotional wellbeing). Our expertise in teaching children how they can better achieve good mental health and emotional wellbeing has, through commitment to training and development, improved considerably in that time, and thanks to national initiatives such as the development of the Rise Team (formerly the ‘Trailblazers’), for example, we now have access to more specialist support on our very doorstep, in addition to the more long-standing services.
This leaflet (attached below) is intended to inform members of our school community of mental health/emotional wellbeing services we can provide or signpost through referral. It also outlines the work we do as part of our health and wellbeing curriculum (delivered through PSHE: Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education). We hope you will find this useful
Mental Health and Wellbeing – Our Principles and Values at Fellside
At Fellside we promote an inclusive, restorative environment in which each individual is valued and respected. We have an ethos of high aspirations for all pupils where academic attainment is prioritised equally with the development of the whole child. As such, we recognise that all children and young people need a solid foundation of positive mental health to benefit fully from all of the opportunities that are available to them here at Fellside. We want our children to be emotionally resilient and mentally healthy, so that they can thrive and succeed. Our curriculum includes direct teaching of skills to support this, both via our PSHE provision and more broadly through our core school values and ethos.
At all times, any one of us may need additional support to maintain or develop good mental health. The mental health of children and young people, adults in schools, parents and carers and the wider whole school community will impact on all areas of a child’s development, learning, achievement and experiences. As a staff team, we understand and recognise the indicators that may signify that a child needs additional support with their mental health and wellbeing needs and we will respond accordingly.
Where a child needs targeted intervention, we respond quickly and reactively to meet their needs, using a graduated approach to inform a clear cycle of support. We aim to establish a clear analysis of the child’s needs before determining a plan to set out how the child will be supported; the action needed to provide that support; and how this will be reviewed to assess the effectiveness of the provision and its longer impact.
Teaching mental health and wellbeing skills has the potential to improve academic outcomes, keeps children safe and improves the emotional well-being and mental health of pupils and future generations. Meeting the mental health and wellbeing needs of our pupils is of upmost importance to us at Fellside Primary School and as a consequence we have developed a Mental Health and Wellbeing provision map to document our provision both at school level as well as that available in the wider locality through appropriate referral to other agencies.
