Mental Wellbeing
At Westways, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community, and recognise how essential positive mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives. We acknowledge that children’s mental health and wellbeing is a crucial factor in their overall happiness whilst in school and how this can impact on their ability to learn and achieve.
The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that: “In order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy.” School should be a place for children, parents and staff members to experience a supportive and nurturing environment, without fear of judgement. We hope to support our children to build self-esteem and resilience when faced with challenging or difficult situations.
Our role at Westways is to ensure that our children feel equipped to manage times of stress or change and that they feel supported to reach their potential. We also have a role in teaching our children the tools to nurture their own mental health and wellbeing. We support our children to develop strategies to maintain a positive mental health and encourage them to speak about their wellbeing without stigma.
Our aims:
- To ensure that our children feel valued and supported;
- Children feel safe and have a sense of belonging whilst at school;
- Children feel that they can speak to us about how they are feeling without a fear of judgement;
- Positive mental health is promoted and valued;
- Bullying is not tolerated.
Our mental wellbeing leaders in school are the inclusion team (Mrs J Thomas, Mrs A Reynolds, Mrs Su Woolley) and members of our Senior Leadership Team (Mr C Hollamby).
Westways Parent/Carer Support Resources:
Other useful information/resources/links:
All the best things in life are free activity
Better Health – Every Mind Matters campaign
Coronavirus Booklet for Children
Cornavirus in Words and Pictures
Coronavirus: resources to support the return to school
Moving on up activity booklet - for Year 6 pupils to help manage the transition from Primary to Secondary School
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children website
Positive Penguins app - this is an app aimed at 8-12 year olds. It has been designed to help them understand their feelings and challenge negative thoughts. Four positive penguins take the children on a journey to help them better understand the relationship between what they feel and what they think.
Supporting the Emotional Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People