Mental Health and Wellbeing Support
Mrs. Foster is our Mental Health Leader in school.
Mrs. Forrest is our ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) Leader.
If you are worried about the mental health or emotional wellbeing of your child, please speak to either Mrs. Foster or Mrs. Forrest.
We have a dedicated group of children in every class, who are training to become Mental Health Champions, through the One Goal programme. They will help to recognise when their classmates are not their 'usual' self, and they will then suggest to them that they go to speak to an adult in school.
As a school we take part in Children's Mental Health Week and World Mental Health Day each year whilst we acknowledge that looking after our Mental Health is something we need to do daily. We liaise with external agencies such as the Primary Mental Health Support Team and ELCAS (East Lancashire Child and Adolescent Support), where additional support is deemed necessary.
Please help your child with their mental health through the use of positive language: "What has gone well today?" "What made you feel happy today?" "What are you proud of?" and choosing age-appropriate words to explain 'tricky' or potentially worrying situations. Remember, children learn from those around them: if we are negative, then the chances are that they will be too.
We also explain to children that "it is okay not to be okay" - we all struggle at times, we all get angry and anxious, and this is normal. What is important, is how we manage those emotions so they do not take over our thinking or behaviour.
There are many websites dedicated to supporting children with their Mental Health. Place2Be is a particularly good website for providing suggestions to use with children, as is the ELSA support website.
Kooth is a website / app that can be used by children who are 10 years of age and older. The following image shows some of the Kooth features. It is to support your mental health and well-being.
Kooth Website
Kooth for Children & Young People (Captioned) from Kooth on Vimeo.
Primary Mental Health Support Team (PMHST)
