“Supporting everyone’s emotional wellbeing and mental health, so that they can be listened to, are happy together and ready to learn”.
It is widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and wellbeing influences their cognitive development and learning, as well as their physical and social health and their mental wellbeing in adulthood. The department for Education recognises that, in order to help their pupils succeed: schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy.
“Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.”
(World Health Organisation 2014)
At Walworth, we aim to promote positive mental health for every child, parent / carer and staff. We pursue this using both universal, whole school and specialised approaches for identified vulnerable pupils and families.
Resources – Working with All Parents and Carers
Parents are often very welcoming of support and information from the school about supporting their children’s emotional and mental health. In order to support parents we will:
- Highlight sources of information and support about common mental health issues on our school website.
- Ensure that all parents are aware of who they can to talk to, and how to get the support they need if they have concerns about their own child or a friend of their child.
- Make our mental health policy easily accessible to parents.
- Share ideas about how parents can support positive mental health in their children through our regular review meetings.
- Keep parents informed about the mental health topics their children are learning about in PSHEC and share ideas for extending and exploring this learning at home.
View Resources for Parents & Carers
Resources – Staff
Training opportunities for staff who require more in depth knowledge will be considered as part of our performance management process and additional CPD will be supported throughout the year where it becomes appropriate due to developing situations with one or more pupils. Where the need to do so becomes evident, we will host twilight training sessions for all staff to promote learning or understanding about specific issues related to mental health.
Staff Training and CPD
As a minimum, all staff will receive regular training about recognising and responding to mental health issues as part of their regular child protection training in order to enable them to keep students safe. We will host relevant information on our virtual learning environment for staff who wish to learn more about mental health. The MindEd www.minded.org.uk learning portal provides free online training suitable for staff wishing to know more about a specific issue.
Wellbeing Award for Schools
Message from our Wellbeing Lead
Our School motto is “Listen, learn and be happy together.” This is the aim of our school vision by “Supporting everyone’s emotional wellbeing and mental health, so that they can be listened to, are happy together and ready to learn.” To complement this as part of our commitment to wellbeing of our children, staff and stakeholders, we have begun a journey to work towards achieving a national award called Wellbeing Award for Schools.
It is an award that recognises a school’s efforts to promote and protect positive emotional wellbeing and mental health education and support. The award requires us to develop an action plan to consciously recognise what we currently do and offer additional opportunities to support and promote mental health and wellbeing. I am leading the process and the ‘Change Team’ to help embed and promote positive mental health and wellbeing across the school community.
If you would like to know any other information about this award and process please contact Mr Cooke.
- Mr Cooke (Assistant Head Teacher / EWMH Lead) Tel – 01325 300194
The main objectives of the Wellbeing Award
The award has a focus on changing the long-term culture of a school, and embedding an ethos where mental health is regarded as the responsibility of all.
With this award, we can:
- Show their commitment to promoting mental health as part of school life
- Improve the emotional wellbeing of their staff and pupils
- Ensure mental health problems are identified early and appropriate support provided
- Offer provision and interventions that matches the needs of its pupils and staff
- Engage the whole-school community in the importance of mental health awareness
- Capture the views of parents, pupils and teachers on mental health issues
Please see link to Emotional Wellbeing and Strategy Plan for Walworth School below:
Mental Health Awareness News
View our latest newsletter which includes news about our Wellbeing Award.
At Walworth School we are getting involved in Mental Health Awareness Week. find out more by viewing our letter to parents and carers below:
Letter to Parents and Carers – Mental Awareness Week
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