Giffard Park Primary School

How does Giffard Park Primary School promote and protect positive mental health?

• Promote knowledge and understanding of both internal and external support services.
• Encourage and support the whole school community to be positive in its approach to mental health wellbeing.
• Provide guidance and support to all those connected with the community to help them develop confidence in their ability to manage mental health and emotional wellbeing.
• Provide appropriate training and information to staff on mental health and emotional wellbeing.
• Have a Senior Mental Health Lead who is the contact point at Giffard Park Primary School, who is responsible for co-ordination and delivery of the school’s mental health and emotional wellbeing strategy.
• Seek to embed mental health and emotional support across the curriculum.

How does Giffard Park Primary School support mental health?

Addressing Needs (mechanisms to support children and staff):

• Promote a culture which supports and encourages self-disclosure.
• Use early identification to identify children and seek support from the school’s qualified Senior Mental Health Leads, Lisa Clark or Glynis Wiles.
• Provide a framework for responding appropriately to mental health wellbeing.
• Recognise that staff have the responsibility to alert others to potential and actual indicators of mental health needs and to take this action whenever necessary. For pupils, through the Mental Health Support Team referral process and MyConcern system following our Safeguarding Policy and for staff, via their Key Stage Leader or the Senior Leadership Team.
• Co-operate with other organisations involved in the delivery of mental health and emotional support services.
• Observe the principles of confidentiality and general data protection in respect of mental health and emotional wellbeing.

How do we support the children’s positive mental health and wellbeing?

Universal Support:

• The whole school use the SCARF (which represents their values for children of Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship) PSHE curriculum which fulfils all DfE statutory requirements for Relationships and Health Education.
• Whole school themed books as a weekly focus to support transition, establish reconnection as well as focus on themes of perseverance, resilience and mindfulness.
• Helping children to develop their resilience through embedding growth mindset, through discrete teaching, displays and threaded through their learning.
• Opportunities for outdoor learning with staff members being trained in Forest Schools.
• Daily check in circles based on restorative practice. This includes twice daily check ins on their wellbeing.
• Zones of regulation has been implemented to the whole school so they can use this tool to identify how they feel and strategies to support them when they feel negatively.
• Wellbeing Ambassadors are a small group of Year 5 and 6 children, who work with the Senior Mental Health Lead to support and promote positive wellbeing across the school.
• The teachers deliver protective behaviours strategies, for example our ‘caring hands’, where the children identify 5 people in their life who can help them.
• Regular whole class brain breaks such as yoga or just dance.
• We have ‘music of the week’ played daily to support the children learning the history behind a wide range of music.
• Each class has a ‘worry box’ or ‘worry monster’ if they would like to write down their worries and their teachers can discuss it with them.

Targeted Support:

• Learning mentors, teachers and teaching assistants meet and greet children in the mornings to support them coming into school.
• Additional support provided for children personalised to their need’s basis, for example going to Ride High or time with the school therapist or learning mentor.
• Targeted intervention of zones of regulations to support emotions.
• Therapeutic activities including art, Lego, relaxation and mindfulness techniques in small groups.
• Resources to assess at track wellbeing used to monitor through the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire and pupil voice.

Specialist Support:

• Referral to external outside agency specialists e.g.: CAMHs, MHST, GP, Inclusion and assessment team, school nurse, children and family practice. 
• Individual, bespoke therapy sessions with a qualified counsellor.
• Specialist, personal support for children who have more complex, long-term difficulties.