Mental Health & Wellbeing
Intent, Implementation & Impact
Intent
Good mental health is fundamental to be able to thrive in life. At New Bewerley, our priority is to give all children the support and skills they need to be successful throughout their lives, therefore we ensure children’s mental health and wellbeing is embodied throughout our whole school curriculum.
Good mental health is vital to children’s personal development. Our aim is to build pupils’ confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally healthy and provide our pupils with an understanding of how to stay physically active, eat healthily and maintain an active lifestyle, including giving diverse opportunities for pupils to be active during the school day and through extra-curricular activities.
For example, we have introduced movement breaks to our daily timetable with all pupils, completing these sensory breaks throughout the day. This allows a mini break in learning and increases oxygen to the brain, which is critical for attention and learning.
Implementation
Our aims are to remove the stigma around mental health and promote a safe environment where all children can discuss their emotions in a safe environment whilst equipping them all with coping strategies when necessary. We believe prevention and early intervention is key and the staff in our school are and invested in implementing whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing
At New Bewerley Community School we follow a 4-stage approach:
- Prevention and early identification
- Early intervention,
- Intervention
- High level intervention
We believe every child should be taught how to stay mentally healthy in order to empower children with the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to cope throughout their lives.
Impact
At New Bewerley, we are passionate about promoting good mental health and removing the stigma around this subject to enable children to show good levels of personal development and be happy and healthy members of our school community.
The impact of our whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing is evident in our school culture, environment and daily activities. The impact of this is also reflected in our pupil, staff and parental voice and more formal questionnaires.
Removing the stigma around mental health
Our priority is to remove the stigma around mental health and create a positive school culture by hosting a variety of focus days and tasks. Each year, in October we celebrate World Mental Health Day as well as Children’s Mental Health Week in February and other focused days throughout the academic year. We build mental health and wellbeing into our whole school curriculum through our PSHE lessons, Zones of Regulation curriculum and through our everyday interactions and culture within the school. We use these focus days as another opportunity to build pupils’ self-esteem, confidence and sense of belonging by reinforcing to them how much they are valued at NBCS.
Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP)
At New Bewerley, we have made strong links with the Mental Health Support Team based in Leeds, in order to provide mental health and wellbeing support to as many pupils as possible. Our Mental Health Lead and SENDCo work closely with our assigned Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) to provide tailored support to the needs of our pupils.
If you are worried about your child’s mental health and wellbeing and wish to speak to our Mental Health Lead please contact Miss Lawson on 01138 878718
Team around the child approach
We also have a strong pastoral support and inclusion team that meets regularly to ensure our children’s needs are being meet. The inclusion includes:
- SENCo/Inclusion Manager
- Senior Mental Health Lead
- Learning Mentor
- Family Support Worker
- Attendance Officer
- Behaviour Support Worker
- Inclusion Support Assistant
These members of staff engage with identified pupils and work to develop positive mental health strategies to support our children as well as work closely with other agencies in Leeds to bring about better outcomes for our pupils.
Wellbeing
Your family's wellbeing is very important to us here at New Bewerley Community School. We're very lucky in Leeds to have many different services on offer to support your physical and mental wellbeing. You can get advice and support about quitting smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, healthy eating, getting enough exercise and looking after your mental health. Just click on the links below to explore what is on offer to you.
MindmateChange4LifeThinkuknowSchool, Child & Family Friendly Policies
Drug Education PolicyAnti-Bullying PolicySE Primary School Guide For Parents
Child and Family Friendly PSHE PolicySchool PHSE Policy
Child and Family Friendly SRE PolicySchool RSE PolicySPCC Report Removal Tool