Mental Health and Wellbeing

At Diseworth C of E Primary School, we are committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff to ensure that everyone within the school community feels able to thrive. We believe that positive mental wellbeing is essential for everyone to lead fulfilling lives. We understand that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and may need additional emotional support at times.

Our aim is to care for and develop the whole child educationally, emotionally, spiritually, morally and physically. As well as caring for their education we also care for their mental health and wellbeing. We feel that it is essential to provide children with information and strategies to enable them to make life long, well informed decisions about their diet, health and wellbeing.

What do we do at Diseworth C of E Primary School to support children’s emotional well-being and mental health?

• Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) is central to the curriculum across the whole school.  Within our curriculum we have embedded the Cambridgeshire Primary Personal Development Programme. PSHE assists pupils to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world, manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities.  The concepts covered in PSHE include identity, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, emotional and social well-being.
• We have a Family and mental well-being lead (Mrs Robe) who works for us one afternoon per week.  She works closely with parents, children and staff. Mrs Robe supports children who have had or are having adverse childhood experiences such as domestic violence, bereavement, anxiety and any other life experiences that may affect their emotional wellbeing. She is a fully trained ELSA who will offer regular 1:1 or small group support and also has good links with outside agencies making contact as and when the need arises. Mrs Robe also has a basic counselling skills qualification but for more difficult cases she can directly refer children to our trained counsellor.
• We have a fully trained ELSA (Ms Gothard) who supports identified children on a 1:1 basis or in small groups. These ELSA sessions are timetabled for two afternoons per week as well as for half an hour every lunchtime. They help with loss and bereavement, self esteem, social skills, friendship issues, relationships, managing feelings, anxiety, conflict, emotional regulation, growth mindset and social stories.
• As a school, we have and continue to access additional outside help and support for pupils when required.
• Within the National Curriculum, every child has a minimum of two hours of physical education each week taught by Mr Vasey and the class teacher.  Mr Vasey organises after school sports clubs.  All children go swimming once a week during the summer term and take part in the Beskilled Partnership sporting activities.
• We promote healthy eating throughout the school. Children have access to fruit at break times. 
• To support children’s social and emotional development, and their well-being we offer a good range of after-school clubs throughout the year - all with a view to increasing the range of experiences that children have, enabling them to make informed choices for adult life.  Activities are designed to be fun and cater for a wide variety of interests.
• We include a ‘Healthy Me’ Week in the school calendar each year and plan activities for the whole school community.
• Throughout the year, we focus on Internet Safety and Keeping Safe.
• We monitor the well-being of our disadvantaged and vulnerable children. We have dedicated PP Champions and Intervention leads who regularly work with individuals and groups and work hard to build positive relationships with parents. All teachers are involved in data analysis so that they know the strengths and weaknesses across the school to ensure all pupils can achieve their full potential.
• The school is committed to gaining a fuller understanding of mental health and supporting the needs of identified children.