At St Issey, we are committed to supporting the positive mental health and wellbeing of our whole community; children, staff, parents and carers.
Our ethos is supportive, caring and respectful. We understand how important positive mental health and wellbeing is to our lives. We recognise that children’s mental health is a vital factor in their overall wellbeing and how it can affect their learning and achievements. Our School encourages children to be open and we support all children to have their voice heard.
The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that “in order to help children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. Our School is a place for children to experience a nurturing and supportive environment. We support the children to develop their self-esteem and build resilience.
We are starting on our journey to a whole school approach but have already made significant inroads to supporting all stakeholders;
- School Mental Health Lead – Chris Parham
- SENDCO – Hayley Lowry
- TIS Practitioner – Sarah Sole
- All staff have benefitted from whole school TIS training and emotions coaching.
Children
- The school council, collective crew and head students act as mental health and wellbeing ambassadors. They feed information back to their peers and highlight any issues and concerns raised by their classmates.
- We have a Mental Health practitioner based on site once a week, who we can refer children to for support and who also delivers class wide support for children’s mental health.
- Our reflection areas in each class feature books and resources to enable children to express how they feel.
- Embedded Mental Health and Wellbeing within the PSHE curriculum.
- Developed an outdoor-based curriculum that offers children real life experiences.
Parents/ Carers
- We highlight services and information through our website and Facebook page.
- https://www.rehab4addiction.co.uk/country-wide/drug-alcohol-rehab-wadebridge
Staff
- We use https://pulse121.com/ to monitor and support our staff’s well being.
- We plan regular training opportunities and supervision for staff so they have the support and information they need to effectively assist children with the stresses and strains that they may face.
- Our village Vicar attends school regularly and offers pastoral support to our staff
- Our MAT offers staff access to a mental health and wellbeing hub that provides a range of services including; counselling, online health portal, medical information and a 24/7 365 telephone hotline
- We arrange regular staff events to encourage a cohesive and positive team.
