Mental Health & Well-being 

Mental Health and Wellbeing Statement

Poor mental health undermines educational attainment. Surveys suggest that disproportionately large numbers of pupils with conduct and emotional disorders fall behind in their overall educational attainment, missing school and/or being excluded.

One in ten children and young people aged 5 to 16 have a clinically diagnosed mental health disorder and around one in seven has less severe problems.

The mental health and wellbeing of all members of Walsden St Peter's CE Primary  School (including staff, students and parents) is fundamental to our philosophy and ethos ‘Resilience inquisitive and caring = happiness’.

Aims:

• To ensure that through the promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing, children and young people are helped to understand and express their feelings, build their confidence and emotional resilience and therefore their capacity to learn.
• To increase the awareness and understanding and reduce stigma amongst students, staff and parents/carers of issues involving the mental health and wellbeing of young people and to provide support at an early stage to any student who is or appears to be suffering from mental health issues.
• To support students and staff with their own mental health and wellbeing.

Promoting positive mental health and well-being:

The culture at Walsden St Peter's CE School promotes student and staff positive mental health and well-being and avoids stigma by:

• Having a whole-school approach to promoting positive mental health and well-being within an ethos of high expectations and constant support.
• Having a committed school community that sets a whole school culture of positive mental health and well-being, support and value.
• Staff being aware of MHWB warning signs.
• Having a robust regime of continuing professional development (CPD) for staff, regarding mental health and well-being.
• Working closely and supporting students, parents and carers.
• Whole school promotion of building individual resilience.

Supporting students:

Mental health and well-being is a very varied and complex area and there are no quick fix solutions. Maintaining every day, regular routines wherever possible, such as, attending school and lessons whilst managing mental health is key. School offers a range of services to help students develop positive mental health and well-being and support those experiencing mental health issues. These are:

• Signposting mental health and well-being resources and agencies on our website
• All staff are well placed to spot changes in behaviour that might indicate a problem and offer support and guidance. Many things can cause a change in mental health including traumatic events (e.g. loss or separation, life changes, abuse, domestic violence or bullying.
• PSHCE curriculum includes mental health and well-being topics in order to raise awareness and understanding and provide strategies for developing positive emotional health and well-being and managing mental health.
• The Health and Well-being Team lead on mental health and wellbeing across the school, offering support, guidance and targeted intervention.
• Constructive links with outside support and specialist agencies (e.g., MAST, Northpoint, Noah's Ark, CAMHS) to provide interventions for those with mental health problems.

Referrals:

Any member of staff, student, parents/carers concerned about the mental health and wellbeing of a student should speak to any staff about their concerns. They will monitor and support them, and refer to the Health and Wellbeing Team and/or outside agencies as appropriate.

Lead members of Staff:

Esther Logue - Senior Mental Health Lead

Rebecca McNulty - Staff well being & Mental Health curriculum lead

Emma Crowther - Headteacher/DSL

Helen Williams - Deputy DSL

Rachel Gray - SENDco

Jess Hudson - Mental Health in School Team

Kay Page - Family Support Worker

Useful Links