Mental Health, Well being & Parental Support
1) Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Provision map will help pupils, families and staff to identify the support and education that everybody will be provided with from school, as part of our valued St. James' community. It also details further support that can be provided by school for particular individuals who would benefit from some more individualised support. In addition, help that can be accessed in Hampshire and nationally in relation to our mental health and wellbeing is also included.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Provision map
2) Mrs Giles, our previous School Inclusions Manager, put together a range of resources to explain some of the strategies we use in school to help children with their emotions and give advice for how parents can support their children, as well as their own emotions in this way at home. We hope that you find them helpful.
Social story for managing feeling
3) Talk Together
Our Inclusions Manager runs Talk Together events with parents, to support discussion and information sharing about how to support Mental Health and Wellbeing in their children. Please click on the two attached documents to view the information that has shared.
Mental Health and Wellbeing in Children
4) As part of our Senior Mental Health Lead's small intervention project, they focused on the use of pupil voice to set up and implement pupil Mental Health Ambassadors. Find out all about it here!
In support of #Hello Yellow World Mental Health day, our Mental Health Ambassadors reminded pupils of the importance of talking to a trusted person about their worries.
World Mental Health Day presentation
Let's Connect, 5 Ways to Wellbeing
Link to Children's Mental Health Week
Our Mental Health Ambassadors joined together with our New Arrival Buddies to present a collective worship all about belonging:
Belonging- Mental Health Ambassadors and New Arrivals Buddies presentation
5) Our Inclusions Manager attended Department of Education training on Wellbeing, which has been shared with all staff. Primary Behaviour Support have produced an excellent parent guide to support many aspects of parenting. Click link below to view the presentation.
Wellbeing Support presentation
6) Mental Wellbeing Hampshire is a partnership of organisations working to support good mental health and wellbeing in adults and children
7) Reading of 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse' by Charlie Mackesy.
Mrs Giles, our previous Inclusions Manager, filmed herself reading this story book, which can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. There are lots of helpful messages in this story which you can take away with you, which are especially helpful in our current circumstances.
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse Book reading
8) The Educational Psychology Service is providing a telephone support line for staff and parents to discuss the emotional well-being of our children. Please click below to view the details.
9) More helpful information can be found on these websites:
- Mentally Healthy Schools
- Young Minds
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHs)
CAMHs have also produced the Good Mental Health Handbook, guide for parents and carers
- Talking about cancer
- Back to Basics | Children and Families | Hampshire County Council
References:
- Social story: Inclusion Manager, St. James’ CE Primary School
- Zones of Regulation Posters, Beth Reller, @kinderreller, Teachers Pay Teachers
- Calming Strategies for Adults, biglifejournal.com
10) PoeMH: Poetry and Mental Health
The mental health of young people is a growing concern amongst schools, both locally and nationally. With many teachers and parents, noticing a rise in anxiety, depression and other emotional issues. A recent project by The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre and the Warblington Partnership Board, a group of schools and organisations from within the central Havant area, aims to highlight some of these issues that young people face today and explore how we can begin to tackle them.
This unique project brought together students (ranging from infant through to secondary school ages) from seven local schools to work with Joseph Coelho, a fantastic published children’s author and poet. Students explored emotions that young people today feel regularly and wrote poems expressing this. These poems were the building block used to create two short films produced by professional film-production company Millstream Productions.
The films include the poetry that the young people wrote, alongside animations that bring the words to life. The message of these powerful films encourage any young person who is dealing with negative emotions to speak to an adult they trust. These films will be used as a tool to discuss the topic of Mental Health in schools and the local community.
As a result of this project and talking about mental health, these young people are now mental health ambassadors within their schools and know how to help themselves and others. Huge congratulations to the children who took part from our school.
