Social, Emotional and Mental Wellbeing - St Botolph's Church of England Primary School

Social, Emotional and Mental Wellbeing at St Botolph’s

Our school is invested in supporting all members of the St. Botolph’s community to develop positive mental health and wellbeing. Wellbeing, both physical and mental, is key to being happy, healthy and engaged. As such, we provide opportunities throughout the school for children and adults to learn more about how to be mentally healthy, how to understand your own mental health and what to do if you or someone you know are struggling.

Support in School

The first line of support available will always be the classroom staff, as they know the children best and have built relationships with them. This puts them in the strongest position to support children. We ensure that all adults working in our school are trained in being an emotionally available adult and supporting children with their mental wellbeing. Alongside this, our rigorous safeguarding training ensures that appropriate actions are taken if any concerns for welfare arise.

Classroom staff work closely with the pastoral and wellbeing lead, Mrs Hallam. She provides support to staff and can signpost as needed, as well as more in depth social, emotional and mental health support through 1:1 and group interventions.

Additionally, as a school we work with a number of outside agencies who can provide specialist support, including the Mental Health Support Team (MHST), Healthy Minds and CAMHS (NHS mental health support agencies), educational psychologists and more.

How We Promote Good Mental Health and Wellbeing at St Botolph’s

This is a continuous process, and children start learning from the moment they join St Botolph’s. This can be through more formal learning in Wellbeing Wednesday and PHSE, or informally through the positive interactions with emotionally available adults who encourage mental wellbeing by engaging with the children, listening and modelling mentally healthy practices. Below is some more detail on one of the main ways we build awareness of social, emotional and mental health into our school lives.

The Five Ways to Wellbeing

As part of our learning on maintaining social, emotional and mental wellbeing, we explore the Five Ways to Wellbeing – an evidence-based framework for practical actions that everyone can build into their lives to improve wellbeing. The Five Ways to Wellbeing are:

Connect – build strong relationships with those around you – family, friends, colleagues, the wider community – and with the world around you.

Be active – movement and exercise not only help you to keep physically healthy, but they also release endorphins and stress relieving hormones which promote mental wellbeing too! It doesn’t matter whether it is going for a run or dancing in your kitchen, finding a physical activity that you enjoy can really help to improve mental health.

Take notice – taking time to be mindful and present can help to build appreciation of life. This could be through more structured mindfulness practices such as meditation or yoga, or it could be taking time to appreciate the wildlife on your walk to school or stopping for a moment on a particularly busy day to notice your own feelings.

Keep learning – try new things, learn new hobbies, explore and discuss new ideas. Continued learning can boost self-esteem, give a sense of satisfaction and achievement, and also maintains brain function throughout life.

Give – give what you can in whatever way you can. This does not have to mean money, it could be your time or your skills. A small gesture such as showing appreciation to a classmate can create a feeling of positivity for both the giver and the receiver.

Children learn about these throughout their school journey, and we provide many opportunities for them to experience each of the Five Ways to Wellbeing on a regular basis. Much like the campaign for eating our “five a day” fruit and vegetables, if children can build these habits into their daily lives now, then they will have a strong foundation for continuing them into adult life.

Useful links and Resources

Here are a number of websites and resources (for both adults and children) which look to promote social, emotional and mental wellbeing.

- Family Lives
- Childline
- Kidscape
- Mind
- NHS – Mindfulness
- Place2Be
- Young Minds
- Gingerbread – Information and support for lone parent families
- Family Wellbeing
- Mental Health

Additional Resources

14 Day Photo Challenge

Managing Angry Feeling Workbook

Relaxation Booklet

Wellbeing And Mental Health Guide From Every Life Matters 002

Mindful Moments

Coronavirus Supporting Children With High Anxiety

Coronavirus Toolkit 6 Resilience

Coronavirus Toolkit Managing Transitions