Mental Health and Wellbeing

At Trevithick Learning Academy, 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 – Nicola Garge (Trauma Informed schools (TIS) practitioner, Autism champion & SENDCo, Mental Health First Aider).
  • Mental Health First Aider – Amber Wallace
  • Pastoral lead – Chris Sevier
  • TIS Practitioner – Emma Waters
  • ARB TIS Practitioner – Joher Anjari
  • Mental Health Support worker – Lora Newman. Lora runs the Supporting parents and Children Emotionally (SPACE) parenting course in school and works with families referred for anxiety related difficulties.
  • Vicki Williams – Nurture group leader & attendance officer
  • All staff have benefitted from whole school TIS training and emotions coaching.

 

Children

  • In school, the school council also act as mental health and wellbeing ambassadors. They feed information back to their peers and highlight any issues and concerns raised by their classmates. The children had two hour long sessions from the mental health support worker on mental health and wellbeing so they are properly prepared for the role.
  • Year 6, connect cards for information to support wellbeing.
  • I wish an adult knew forms for pupils to highlight things they may be worrying about.
  • Restorative approach to conflict resolution
  • Embedded Mental Health and Wellbeing within the PSHE curriculum and this will be the focus of our summer term lessons.
  • Developed an outdoor-based curriculum that offers children real life experiences.

 

This half term the Mental Health and Wellbeing ambassadors have been running and judging a poster competition to promote the five ways to wellbeing. The entries were phenomenal. Please take a look at some of the fantastic entries below.

Parents/ carers

  • We have run a six week, Supporting Parents and Children Emotionally (SPACE) course in school
  • We offer training on new curriculum teaching so parents are better equipped to support their children’s learning.
  • We have a parent Liaison officer to support with any issues affecting the family as a whole.
  • We highlight services and information through our website and Facebook page.

 

Parents and carers are so important to our school and so while we look to develop our offer further we welcome your ideas, areas you may need further information on, services you may like information on or training that may be useful.

 

Staff

  • We recently formed a staff focus group to help shape our staff offer.
  • 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.
  • We have weekly pastoral meetings to ensure effective support for vulnerable children and families.

We arrange regular staff events to encourage a cohesive and positive team.