Mental Health and well being is a crucial aspect of school life.  Mrs Ford is our lead, whilst Mrs Riches has also carried out the national Mental Health lead training.

A variety of activities and events take place in school to support children and adults but perhaps most important is the school ethos which values each and every person as a gift from God.  Below is a list of some of the activities we have engaged in this year.

• Questionnaires to assess the wellbeing of school and individuals
• Face-to-face conversations with individual staff self-identifying on questionnaires
• Questionnaires to parents
• Mental health newsletters
• National Mental health day with whole school
• A designated and appropriately designed quiet room
• Class worry boxes and post box
• Class resources, e.g. shakers
• An Emotional Litercay Support Assistant (ELSA) (see below for more information)
• No outsiders work feeds into Mental Health work
• Class libraries being better sourced
• Improved and well used recording system to identify struggling children with follow up where necessary
• Use of staff buddies for individual support
• CPD including Attachment, Trauma and Mental Health Awareness training for all teaching staff
• Staff meetings standing item
• Children as Mental Health champions
• Anti-bullying ambassadors across school
• All training and school events considered in the light of wellbeing and workload 

Emotional Litercay Support Assistant (ELSA)

We understand that in certain circumstances some of our children may need additional
support delivered by our trained ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) and EBSA
(Emotional Based School Avoidance) Teaching Assistant.  In school this is Mrs Pennington.
This extra support maybe in the form of 1:1 or small group sessions on a weekly basis for
approximately six weeks.   These normally focus on a particular area that are impacting your
child’s overall wellbeing, which in turn affects progress, attainment or attendance.  The
sessions will help to develop your child’s understanding of how they can manage situations
and their emotions. You as their parent or carer play a vital role is developing and nurturing
your child’s wellbeing and working in partnership with our ELSA we aim to develop their
understanding further of their own and others emotions and feelings.
These sessions are held in our ‘Chill Out Zone,’ which is a designated ‘safe space’ which all
of our children can access when they may need some time to regulate or re-focus before
return to the classroom.