VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
to chill out over coffee and bacon sandwiches! Little things admittedly, but they are making a difference to the culture within school and it feels a happy place to work. It is not all fun and games however - we have
focused on some serious issues and educated our staff about physical and emotional wellbeing. We have weekly yoga, fitness and a running club which are free for staff and also weekly massage/pamper sessions for relaxation. For pupils one of the greatest skills we can
teach is for them to be critical thinkers and to be more resilient - we wanted our children to feel confident that if they had issues or were feeling stressed they could talk to us about it and that we would support them. We had to start by educating our children about mental health wellbeing, and there is now a good understanding across school that mental health is as important as physical health. Strategies such as “measure my mood”, which we do daily where children talk about how they are feeling, and our daily ten minute wellbeing sessions where children meditate or reflect have supported children in looking after their wellbeing. We also recognised that we needed to address
issues such as Facebook bullying, photo filtering leading to low self-esteem etc., so we had to change our curriculum to meet these needs. We have a wellbeing strand that is taught throughout the whole school as part of our extended curriculum with children accessing weekly lessons. We also have “happy Mondays” once a half term where children take part in activities taken from their top 10 things to do. We also reviewed our whole pastoral offer and
we have a dedicated team including a play therapist and counsellor who can offer bespoke services for children needing support. For our harder to reach children we developed
a farmstead with goats, chickens and rabbits and this has supported many more challenging children in terms of developing empathy and self- esteem. Piper our pastoral cat has also been a welcome addition to the staff team and works with children who find it difficult to manage feelings or those who find communication challenging.
How does this strategy work day to day? You have to dedicate time on a daily basis to well- being, it can’t be something that is just talked about, offered and then forgotten - we are only just starting our journey, but we know that making it part of daily school life is the only way for it to work.
How have the staff responded? We now have a workplace where staff feel valued and openly talk about mental health issues with colleagues and line managers, and as a result we are much more able to support them and signpost them to external agencies. Absence has reduced dramatically over the last year and
absence related to stress has been almost eradicated - this has to be attributed in part to our work on mental health awareness. Staff feel empowered and more confident to deal with issues raised by children and the stigma of talking about mental health has disappeared.
What do the pupils think of it? Pupils feel listened to and supported - they can express their feelings openly and we have removed the stigma for many of mental health issues. They love the happiness days! Confidence has grown, and we can see the
benefits across the curriculum - for example, their capacity to reason has developed and they are becoming more resilient in their approach to learning.
Has the wider school community embraced it? In the same way that happy staff make happy children we know that for many children it is the impact of their home lives that is the greatest contributor to their mental health and wellbeing. We wanted to support parents in our community who find it difficult to talk about issues and help signpost them to external support. We held a wellbeing fayre for parents and invited agencies to come to offer the opportunity for parents to connect with support services. It was so well attended they have asked us to do it annually! We have also held workshops for parents
discussing mental health and plan more of these moving forward, and feel that by educating the whole community we will have greatest impact.
What would you say to other schools thinking about undertaking similar programmes? We know that more and more primary children are suffering from poor mental health and this is only going to get worse unless we teach them
October 2018
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strategies to become more resilient and more critical in their thinking. Don’t wait for the government to make it statutory to support pupils’ mental health - do it now! The benefits far outweigh any time and budget costs. Whilst our improving progress and attainment results are not only down to our commitment to wellbeing, I know that it plays a big part.
uwww.boothroydprimaryacademy.co.uk
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