Mental Health and Wellbeing

At Harlow Green Community Primary School, we are committed to supporting the positive mental health and wellbeing of our whole community of children, staff, parents and carers.

“Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.” (World Health Organization 2014)

Within our school, we recognise how important mental health and emotional well-being is to our lives in just the same way as physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and can affect their learning and achievement. Persistent mental health problems may lead to pupils having significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of those of the same age.

The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that: “in order to help their pupils succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”.

Our aim in school is to ensure that the children are able to manage times of change and stress, be resilient, are supported to reach their potential and access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that pupils learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues and where they can go if they need help and support.

We strive to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and be a school where:

all pupils are valued
pupils have a sense of belonging and feel safe
pupils feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma
positive mental health is promoted and valued
bullying is not tolerated

What does support look like at Harlow Green?

We offer different levels of support depending on the needs presented:

Universal Support

To meet the needs of all our pupils through our overall ethos and our wider curriculum. Lesson such as PSHE, KidSafe sessions, and our Forest School programme, provides opportunities to consider feelings and emotions in different contexts along with identifying how to meet the various challenges faced.

Additional support

For those who may have short term needs and those who may have been made vulnerable by experiences such as bereavement, some additional, school-based support can be provided. This may include specific time with staff on an informal basis or working through a particular focus on a regular basis for a designated period of time.

Targeted support

For pupils who need more differentiated support and resources or specific targeted interventions such as managing strong emotion, with the agreement of families, we can implement specific work. This may include specific programmes delivered by school staff, or a referral to other agencies and professionals that have expertise that our own staff do not have.

Support for parents/carers

As part of our work to further develop our mental health and well-being support in school, we are creating useful guides and advice to support our school community, and these can be accessed via this page and the specific areas below.

General Routines

Developing consistent routines for children is essential in supporting them to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. This reduces anxiety for the child and helps create a positive and calm environment in the home. Although it can be challenging for parents/carers to embed routines with consistency, especially when children are unhappy about them, they are essential for long term development towards positive mental health and personal success.

The guides below provide information in different areas with practical advice through text and videos.

Anxiety

Children can develop anxiety for many reasons which can also affect them in various ways. Identifying children’s needs early with empathy is the first step in providing the support required.

The guide below provides a range of strategies which families could adopt at home where they feel there is a need.

Please remember that you should share your concerns with your child’s class teacher so that we can support or simply understand what your child is going through.

Anxiety in Children and Young People Guidance for Parents and Carers GPS