Poppleton Road Mental Health Intent Statement
Why We Teach Children About Mental Health
All the staff at Poppleton Road Primary School are passionate about making a difference to the lives of young people. We believe that we work best when we work as part of a team. We believe in working with each other, with teachers and colleagues across the school, parents, with the wider school community and most importantly with the young people in our school. We are dedicated to not simply being reactive to mental health issues that may arise, but to put in place a robust curriculum and school ethos that promotes good mental health. A key part of this is our focus on inclusion of all children as well as embedding a key belief in respect, something that is championed in our school rules, ‘Safe, Ready, Respect’.
Our Aims:
A key part of our school aim is to work to remove the barriers that children and families may face due to prejudice and discrimination. Removing these barriers has been shown to be one of the most successful ways of improving mental health as well as improving outcomes for all the children in our school. This includes building a diverse curriculum that reflects our school, but also working with the SENDCo, safeguarding leads, children and family worker and school staff to provide a safe environment for children to learn in and support for those families who may need it outside of school. Our aim is for every child to be in school and in an environment where they are ready to learn, where they feel safe and respected, and where they get the most of their time in school.
How We Achieve This:
We achieve this through implementing four strands throughout school:
Prevention:
Creating a safe and calm environment where mental health problems are less likely, improving the mental health and wellbeing of the whole school population, and equipping pupils to be resilient so that they can manage the normal stress of life effectively.
Teaching pupils about mental wellbeing through the curriculum and reinforcing this teaching through school activities and ethos.
Creating an inclusive and respectful environment throughout school and ensuring that children’s voices are included in decision making.
Identification:
Recognising emerging issues as early and accurately as possible.
Recording and referring issues in order to identify patterns and ensure that safeguarding for our children is thorough.
Early support:
Helping pupils and families to access evidence based early support and interventions.
Delivering a range of interventions in school to support young children with their mental health.
Access to specialist support:
Working effectively with external agencies to provide swift access or referrals to specialist support and treatment.
What Does This Look Like in School?
As a school, we use Zones of Regulation to help children understand and express emotions. This is something you will see used in every classroom across school. It gives the children a age appropriate way to express and understand their emotions.
Wellbeing Toolkit
Across school, we use the wellbeing toolkit to support children in managing their emotions. It is a kit of strategies to manage feelings when we are feeling dis-regulated. These are taught regularly across school to ensure that children have a range of strategies to ‘get them back to green’.
Worry Box
Worry boxes are used across school to allow children to share worries. This allows children to be able to share worries without having to have a face to face discussion.
Click below to read the intent statement for Poppleton Road Primary School
Mental Health Intent Statement
Click below to see the progression in mental health education from reception to year 6.
Mental Health Curriculum Overview and Vocabulary
Statutory Guidance
Mental health education is linked in with the P.S.H.E. curriculum. However, the government have shared separate statutory guidance outlining what children should know about mental health by the end of primary school.
Mental wellbeing
Pupils should know:
- that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, in the same way as physical health
- that there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different experiences and situations
- how to recognise and talk about their emotions, including having a varied vocabulary of words to use when talking about their own and others’ feelings
- how to judge whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and proportionate
- the benefits of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation, voluntary and service-based activity on mental wellbeing and happiness
- simple self-care techniques, including the importance of rest, time spent with friends and family and the benefits of hobbies and interests
- isolation and loneliness can affect children and that it is very important for children to discuss their feelings with an adult and seek support
- that bullying (including cyberbullying) has a negative and often lasting impact on mental wellbeing
- where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support), including whom in school they should speak to if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions (including issues arising online)
- it is common for people to experience mental ill health. For many people who do, the problems can be resolved if the right support is made available, especially if accessed early enough.
More information on this can be found here: