At Pitmaston we understand that everyone has mental health needs and we work hard to ensure that positive relational experiences are part of every day for every child. As a staff we are trained to recognise any signs or changes in behaviour that may indicate further support is needed. We have developed a graduated response to supporting children’s mental health with many universally available strategies and interventions. These include the morning ‘Meet and Greet’, our Mental Health Check-in boards and the lunchtime KS2 hub led by our Mental Health and Well-being Therapeutic Practitioners. When parents, staff or children indicate further support is required we are incredibly proud of the range of therapeutic interventions we can offer. These include PEMS (Personalised Mental Health Support) sessions with our lead practitioners, Play Therapy, School Counselling, Drawing and Talking Therapy or inclusion in our Thrive programme.
Being mentally healthy means that we feel good about ourselves, make and keep positive relationships with others and can feel and manage the full range of emotions. These can range from happiness, excitement and curiosity through to less comfortable feelings such as anger, fear or sadness. Good mental health allows us to cope with life’s ups and downs, to feel in control of our lives and to ask for help from others when we need support.
We are keen to make mental health an integral part of every child’s experience, every day and so all children are met with a greeting (currently a virtual one until we can safely touch again!) from their teacher. Each morning children are invited to place themselves on the mental health check-in board. This encourages children to express their feelings and highlight any child who may need time with their safe and trusted adult within our nurturing environment.
Each year we complete a pupil well-being survey where children are asked a series of questions relating to their feelings towards school, their sense of belonging within the school community and how well they feel they are noticed and their achievements recognised by adults in school. The responses help to guide our whole school focus as well as individual year group and class activities.
Weekly PSHE lessons are crucial for children to be able to prepare for life, help them to know and really value who they are and help them to relate to other people in this ever changing world. During these lessons children will learn how to take care of their mental health and well-being and practise mindful moments at the start of every lesson. The curriculum design ensures that children learn about mental health in a progressive and age appropriate way. In the Early Years this includes recognising and naming emotions such as happy, sad, frightened and angry through to Year 6 who learn that people can suffer poor mental health and that this is nothing to be ashamed of. Children learn how to recognise if they or someone they know is struggling with their mental health and how they can help. Please see the links below to the full framework and our PSHE area of the website
We are very proud to have 9 members of staff trained as Youth Mental Health First Aiders. This gives our staff team an in depth understanding of young people’s mental health, practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues and the knowledge and tools to provide ongoing support to these pupils and/or staff.
Kooth is a free online mental well-being community that is promoted by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust. It is designed to support young people from 11 years of age and can be accessed via a phone, tablet or desktop computer. There are articles, discussion boards and ‘chat’ access to mental health professionals. Please use the link below for further details.
How do we support our children’s social and emotional development in school?
Links to useful websites for parents:
We are a Trauma and Mental Health Informed School
We are incredibly proud to announce that we have been awarded the highest accolade from Trauma Informed Schools, an organisation committed to improving the health and well-being of some of the most vulnerable school children across the UK. As a school team we have been working hard to ensure strong and healthy relationships are formed, as well as developing therapeutic practice, placing children at the centre of everything we do. We are proud of the extensive emotional and mental health support that we are able to offer our children and are thrilled to be recognised in this way.
