Pupil Wellbeing
We are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils. We have a supportive and caring ethos and our approach is respectful and kind, where each individual and contribution is valued. 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.
At our school we:
- Help children to understand their emotions and feelings better
- Help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
- Help children socially to form and maintain relationships
- Promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they are valued
- Encourage children to be confident and to express their views and ideas
- Help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks
We promote a mentally healthy environment through:
- Promoting our school values and encouraging a sense of belonging
- Promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision-making
- Celebrating academic and non-academic achievements
- Providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
- Providing opportunities to reflect
- Access to appropriate support that meets their needs
We pursue our aims through:
- Universal, whole school approaches (STARS Wellbeing and Mindfulness)
- Support for pupils going through recent difficulties including bereavement
- Specialised, targeted approaches aimed at pupils with more complex or long term difficulties including attachment disorder
Mindfulness
"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’."
Staff have been trained to deliver the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) Dots and Paws b Curriculum. Dots is a new mindfulness curriculum for children aged 3 - 6 developed by MiSP in collaboration with experienced teachers in a range of settings. Paws b [pause be] is a leading mindfulness curriculum for children aged 7 -11 in schools and was initially developed in collaboration with experienced primary school teachers at Pen y Bryn school and senior mindfulness teachers and researchers at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University in Wales. The lessons are flexible and varied and can be taught as twelve 30 to 60 minute lessons or can be grouped into pairs and delivered over six sessions.
The benefits of Paws b for our pupils:
- Promotes well-being and resilience
- Offers knowledge and skills applicable to the child’s life
- Can be individually tailored to suit each child
- Extends the thinking skills learning which is promoted in the national curriculum such as neuroscience and metacognition
