Mental Health & Wellbeing

Wellbeing at Our Lady & St Patrick's

We have a three-tiered graduated approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing here at Our Lady and St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School.

Every child benefits from daily whole class wellbeing sessions ‘Calm Start’ and for this, we use a mix of approaches including yoga, meditation, mindfulness, guided relaxation, therapeutic stories, problem solving, exploring feelings and emotions.

At the core of each of these approaches is the importance of giving children an emotional vocabulary, the time and space to listen and reflect on how they feel and a set of tools to help them move to a more positive set of feelings when sadness, frustration, anger, loneliness, grief are experienced.

Our Three-Tiered Approach to Positive Mental Health

Other ways in which we promote Health and Wellbeing in School include:

a school with caring and dedicated staff
a school ethos inspired by Gospel Values and the teachings of Jesus, which has children’s social and emotional well-being at the heart of it
a Designated Mental Health Lead, Mrs Goodfellow and Deputy Designated Mental Health Lead, Miss Foster;
a designated member of staff to liaise with families to provide the support available to help to meet the child’s needs or signpost them to somebody who may be able to help
a team of trained Youth Mental Health First Aiders;
all staff trained in Understanding Mental Health
Three specialist, wellbeing rooms, The Nest, The Den and The Snug;
two specially-trained Emotional Literacy Support Assistant's (ELSA);
a professional counsellor, who runs one-to-one sessions with specific children;
whole school assembly themes to promote and support SEMH;
worry boxes and slips around the school for children to easily request support from a trusted adult;
circle time sessions in all year groups;
annual workshop sessions with 'The Education Life Bus'
annual workshops, events and assemblies run by NSPCC staff;
marking World Mental Health Day and Mental Health Awareness Week in school;
a comprehensive range of health and sporting activities across the curriculum and in after-school clubs
a behaviour system that employs a restorative approach and a reward system (using class dojo) that encourages children to embody our school values to be kind, caring and considerate towards others.