Mental Health and Wellbeing

Our Approach

At Hamsey Primary School, mental health and emotional wellbeing is an important part of school life for both children and staff.

We are committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff to ensure that the school is a community where everyone feels able to thrive. Positive mental wellbeing is essential if children and young people are to flourish and lead fulfilling lives.

At our school, we know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.

Our structures and practices consistently support all children’s mental health across the school community. We continually consider how children’s individual needs are met through a stepped approach, ensuring that practices are consistent for all children, whilst providing additional support for the most vulnerable children.

We have support from a wide range of services on whom we can call or signpost our families to for advice. These are outlined in our Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Policy.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy.pdf

Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families

The diagrams below were created alongside the Talking Mental Health Animation & Toolkit which features an introduction from their Patron, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge who supported the 'You're Never Too Young to Talk' mental health campaign. The resources demonstrate how we can help children express their feelings, respond appropriately, and prevent small problems from snowballing into bigger ones.

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Helping children and young people to manage anxiety: A practical guide to supporting pupils and students during periods of disruption draws on the existing evidence base around self-care and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to think about how we can support children and young people struggling with anxiety. It is aimed at supporting teachers working remotely with children, and can also be shared to support parents and carers who are playing a more significant role than ever in their child’s education at a challenging time.

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Helping Children and Young People Manage Anxiety.pdf

Mindfulness in Schools Project

https://mindfulnessinschools.org/

At its most basic level, mindfulness helps train your attention to be more aware of what is actually happening, rather than worrying about what has happened or might happen. We learn to bring greater curiosity to whatever it is we experience. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founding father of secular mindfulness, described this skill as ‘being alive and knowing it’. We hope this short animation explains this more colourfully.

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Supporting Children and Young People in their Mental Health

Below is a guide for East Sussex schools: a resilience-based, whole school approach to promoting positive mental health and addressing individual needs.

This guide aims to encourage and build on the good work that schools already do in terms of differentiation and adapting approaches to include all children and help to maximise their academic and emotional development. Schools should address barriers to academic outcomes, and this guide is designed to support schools in addressing emotional behavioural and emerging mental health problems which can be barriers to attainment. Taking a whole school approach to emotional and mental wellbeing and using some of the simple low cost suggestions for classroom teachers in this guide can support children and young people’s sense of belonging to a school and encourage attendance, good development and improve learning outcomes.

Supporting Children and Young People in their Mental Health.pdf