Wellbeing
We are committed to supporting and enhancing every child’s wellbeing as they grow and mature. The complexities of the modern world mean that young people need to be resilient and should be equipped with a range of tools that can carry them through difficult times. Our school motto 'Climb the mountain to reach the stars' reflects the importance we place on resilience, which we feel is so important in every aspect of children's lives. We provide support that can be accessed by all or bespoke to individual or group needs.
We are regularly reviewing and improving our approach to safeguarding the mental health and wellbeing of pupils. We have improved the range of help available by signing up to ‘Kooth’, (a face to face counselling service) and Mental Health Practitioners via our Local Authority. This includes a scheme called 'Future in Mind'. These services are free but limited to referrals by school, where mental health is affecting learning. Parents who have concerns about their child’s mental health at home should let us know, but also approach their GP in the usual way.
WF-I Can
Have you visited this excellent resource yet? It is an online resource for children in Wakefield, looking at ways to support with children and young people's wellbeing, offering support and advice.
Tell us how you're feeling
If something is making you unhappy at school, we can help you! Find a trusted adult in school to talk to, or write it on your Monday check-in. It will be confidential and will be dealt with quickly. If you have a worry about someone else, please tell us too.
Early Help
We work in partnership with our Local Authority to ensure that our families have access to the help they need as soon as they need it.
Wakefield's Early Help Website contains support, advice, information and resources to enable all families get the right help at the right time:
Bullying
We strive to provide a caring, friendly and safe environment for all of our pupils so they can learn in a relaxed and secure atmosphere. Bullying of any kind is unacceptable at our school. If bullying does occur, all pupils are encouraged to tell a familiar member of staff, and they are reassured by our commitment to all incidents being dealt with promptly and effectively. Anyone who knows that bullying is occurring is expected to tell a member of our staff.
Online bullying is taken as seriously as any other form of bullying. We do what we can to support parents/carers in helping to keep their children safe online. If you feel that online bullying has taken place, please try to get screenshots of conversations so that we can address it in school.
It is the responsibility of our whole school community to eradicate bullying by ensuring the development of a caring and supportive ethos and showing no tolerance for bullying. Our aim is also to support pupils in identifying and seeking help with situations where bullying occurs.
We use Anti-Bullying Alliance resources and take part in their Anti-Bullying Week activities every year.
Visit our 'Policies' page to see our Anti-Bullying Policy.
Other Support
Family Action: www.family-action.org.uk
Family Action transforms lives by providing practical, emotional and financial support to those who are experiencing poverty, disadvantage and social isolation across the country.
Our Mental Health Provision
Our main nurture provision comprises:
- Clear, caring values which the whole community is encouraged to share, and a whole school approach to Personal, Social and Health Education, delivered via assemblies and during class time.
- Our Jigsaw PSHE curriculum places wellbeing and mindfulness at its centre.
- Weekly check-in sheets, filled in on Mondays let us know how children are feeling
- Our lunchtime clubs run by Learning Mentors support pupil wellbeing.
- Each class has its own TA, who picks up on, and responds quickly to any need.
- Attendance issues are identified and acted on quickly by our Attendance Officer in partnership with our DSL team.
- The Nurture Team meets weekly to discuss any issues that may have been spotted.
- Additional Support: Educational Psychologist, Children First Hub, WISENDSS
- External Support: Our Future in Mind link worker helps us to access a wide range of wellbeing support resources. We will always get consent from parents before referring children to any additional support.
Online mental wellbeing community - https://www.kooth.com/
Info and support on Children's Mental Health - https://www.nspcc.org.uk/
Wakefield Safeguaring Children's Partnership - https://www.wakefieldscp.org.uk/
Childline - https://www.childline.org.uk/
Charity fighting for children and young people's mental health - https://youngminds.org.uk/
Physical Health
We promote physical health and wellbeing via our approach to PE and Sport. Click here and here for more information about PE and Sport in our school.
We also incorporate learning about Healthy Eating into curriculum areas such as Design and Technology and Science. Click here for more information about recent developments, and click here for information about our approach to Healthy Eating and here for information about our policy for Packed Lunches.
Following the Covid lockdowns, keeping active is high on our agenda. Here are some ways that we ensure good levels of physical activity in school:
- Swimming lessons in Year 5
- Dance Explosion dance classes in Years 1, 2 and 6
- ACEs sports coaching in Years 3 and 4
- Active learning in Maths and English with Tagtiv8
- Active French lessons with our Lingotot teacher
- The Weekly Mile (more often in some classes, with teachers rewarding the most improved runner each week)
- Virtual sports competitions
- Sports Fortnight to expose children to new activities
- New sports equipment for children to use in lessons, or during reward time (e.g. table tennis table).
Breakfast for All
We recognise that hunger can be a barrier to learning. We are proud to work in partnership with charitable providers to provide a supplement to breakfasts with free bagels available on our playground every morning. These bagels are specially made for schools, to ensure that they are healthy and comply with food guidance.
We also have a limited number of pre-funded places for our breakfast club from 8:20 onwards, on an invitation only basis.
Support for Sleep
Sleep is an important part of our well-being and can impact on our emotions, ability to function and ability to cope. It is quite common for children, adolescents and adults to experience some difficulties in sleeping from time to time. To support you and your family, you may find the following resources beneficial:
The Children’s Sleep Charity – https://www.thechildrenssleepcharity.org.uk/parents.php
Unravel – https://unravelsupport.co.uk/the-importance-of-sleep-for-positive-mental-health/
Great Ormond St –Sleep hygiene
Young Minds – https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/feelings-and-symptoms/sleep-problems/
10 tips to beat insomnia - https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/10-tips-to-beat-insomnia/
NHS promoted apps to support good sleep - https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/filter/?categories=Sleep