Emotional Health and Wellbeing

Supporting Children’s Social and Emotional Wellbeing at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School

Introduction

At St Mary’s we believe every child is special. We value every child and want to:

  • Nurture their emotional and personal development.
  • Provide a safe, secure and caring
    environment.
  • Develop their understanding of how to be healthy and safe.
  • Enable them to express themselves and make good choices.
  • Work with parents and carers and other agencies and services to provide quality education, support and care within a Catholic Christian setting.
Relationships and Health Education

This is a statutory part of our curriculum and develops from Reception to Yr6. It is taught mainly from the ‘Life to the Full’ programme published by TenTen. It enables each child to grow in understanding of themselves, others and their relationships in the wider world. It encourages children to reflect on their relationships and to develop as caring, tolerant, forgiving and loving people. Story is used to develop children’s understanding of people and relationships, and to develop skills such as empathy. Older children have access to different styles of learning more suited to them. Safeguarding and current issues facing children today, especially online safety, are thoroughly explored. Each class has regular circle times and a range of other activities which develop their interpersonal skills and a sense of who they are, their likes and dislikes. These social and emotional aspects of learning are also supplemented by other resources which all help to develop problem solving and communication skills so that children can develop the skills to work effectively with others, a vital skill for emotional wellbeing.

For many years St Mary’s has worked hard to develop a range of further support opportunities to support children and families when times are troubling or difficult.

ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)

Our specialist trained teaching assistants, Mrs Ireland (trained ELSA) and Mrs Copeland , support children’s self-esteem, relationship skills, anxieties and worries in small groups or individual sessions using a range of resources suited to the individual or group.

ELSA information leaflet

EBSA (Emotional based School Avoidance)

Miss Pearse and Mrs Kale are specially trained to support children whose anxieties are a barrier to school attendance.

Emotionally Based School Avoidance information for parents

Rainbows

We are proud to be a Rainbows school. This is a programme to help children who have suffered from loss or bereavement of any sort (it includes both death and separation). It is run by Mrs Ireland, Mrs Copeland and Miss Pearse. Please speak to Mrs Beaven if you would like to more know.

Family and Pupil Mentor

Mrs Kale is our Family and Pupil Mentor. She works with children in school to identify barriers to attendance and learning, but is also there to support families with attendance, behaviour, home life, anxiety and more. Mrs Kale can help families to access a wide range of support services such as Early Help and Young Carers.  Please do reach out if there is something we can help you with.

Play therapy

We are extremely lucky to work with Evelyn Saunders, a fully accredited play therapist. Children have the opportunity to explore emotional issues through play, art and discussion. It is the child’s special place, away from the demands of the classroom and of home. Parental involvement can be important and may be included at different stages of the work as appropriate.

Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs)

As part of the Mental Health Schools Team we can offer support from locality based EMHP’s, who work with children with specific anxieties using Cognitive Behaviour Strategies. This includes supporting children with various anxieties including phobias, sleep or eating concerns, low mood or depression and behaviour difficulties.

School nurse team

The school nurse team can support with parents/carers with issues linked to the behaviour, care and health of their children including things such as bedwetting sleep and eating. Please speak to Mrs Kale if you think this would be helpful.

“The education setting is probably the greatest
opportunity we have outside the family to promote and maintain social well being.”
Heather Geddes

As parents, we might not expect that we will need these opportunities but sometimes events or change in a family can be hard to cope with or understand, for children or adults. So if either you or your child are finding something difficult and feel some support would be helpful, please come and talk to us.

All conversations and work follow highly professional methods and are treated with confidentiality unless there is a safeguarding concern.
Here to help!

If there is a time when any of these service might be helpful to you please speak to Mrs Cole, Mrs Kale, Mrs Lockwood or Mr Edgington. The office team will be happy to give us a message or make an appointment for you to see us.

We want the best for every child.

Click here to download a copy of our Supporting Children’s Social and Emotional learning Leaflet