Emotional Wellbeing
On this page, you can read about:
Our approach to Mental Health
How we support your child’s mental health & wellbeing
What to do if you are worried about your child’s mental health
Looking after yourself
Young Carers
Useful websites
Our Approach to Mental Health
At Downton Primary School, we believe passionately in promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing to ensure that our school is a community where everyone feels able to thrive. Our school ethos and values underpin everything that we do.
We all have mental health - just as we all have physical health. Being mentally healthy means that we feel good about ourselves, make and keep positive relationships with others and can feel and manage the full range of emotions. These can range from happiness, excitement and curiosity through to less comfortable feelings such as anger, fear or sadness. Good mental health allows us to cope with life’s ups and downs, to feel in control of our lives and to ask for help from others when we need support.
Like physical health, mental health can range across a spectrum from healthy and flourishing to struggling and unwell. It can fluctuate daily and change over time in response to different stresses and experiences.
Most children and young people sit at the positive end of the spectrum, most of the time. However, we know that everyone experiences challenges and at times, children will demonstrate changes in their relationships, behaviour and learning that suggest they are struggling. Our staff are trained to spot these changes and follow our Mental Health referral pathway to ensure that children can access the support they need.
How we support your child’s mental health and wellbeing
At Downton, we work hard to ensure our universal provision supports all children’s mental health; the ethos and culture of our school promotes positive mental health and emotional wellbeing. We have Mental Health Ambassadors in every class who are trained in supporting their peers. There are termly worships linked to mental health, communication boxes in all classrooms, a focus on building relationships across the school with our buddy system and our curriculum is designed with the child at its centre. IF a child is struggling with their mental health, our staff are trained to spot the signs and provision can be put in place. We offer a tiered approach to our mental health provision, depending on the level of need - take a look at the pyramid below which breaks this down.
Universal Support- Whole school response to supporting ALL children’s mental health and wellbeing and is something that all teachers at Downton are passionate about.
Targeted support- More targeted support may be needed when a child is struggling with their mental health - it may have short term needs or may have been made vulnerable by life experiences such as bereavement/parental separation. The first wave of this support would be put in place by the class teacher and could involve strategies such as meet and greets, soft landings or positivity journals. If there is no improvement after 4-6 weeks of in class targeted support, teachers then work with the senior mental health lead to fill out a referral form for more specialist targeted support which is provided within school and delivered by our pastoral team.
Our school interventions include:
Relax Kids – Delivered by our Relax Kids Coach, Mrs Drennan
Relax Kids is typically a 6-8 week block of 1:1 or small group sessions aimed to educate and empower the child with the knowledge and practical tools to help understand and manage their worries and anxiety. Sessions incorporate mindful movement and games, stretching, self-massage, breathing exercises, positive affirmations and guided relaxation.
Thrive – Delivered by our Thrive practitioner Mrs Rhoades
Thrive sessions are 1:1 or small group play and arts based activities designed to help the child feel better about themselves; become more resilient and resourceful, form trusting and rewarding relationships, be compassionate and empathetic, and/or be able to overcome difficulties and setbacks. Thrive is a trauma-informed approach and sessions take place weekly and continue for up to 12 weeks.
ELSA – Delivered by our Higher Level Teaching Assistant Miss Emm
ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant and their role is to support the emotional wellbeing of pupils. Miss Emm is trained by a team of Educational Psychologists and receive ongoing group supervision. Sessions are weekly 1:1 or small group sessions developed to offer the child support around the following areas: self-esteem, team building, friendships, social skills, anger management or understanding emotions.
Specialist Support – Specialist level of individual support for those children who are still struggling despite Universal/Targeted support and are in need of help from trained professionals e.g. CAMHS, Family Counselling Trust, Winston’s Wish etc.
We pride ourselves on our wonderful pastoral team who work together to develop and deliver our whole school approach to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of the whole school community.
Senior Mental Health Lead - Mrs Bates
Relax Kids Coach – Mrs Drennan
SENDCO – Mrs Butler
Mental Health link governor: Rosemary Leo
Thrive Practitioner: Mrs Rhoades
Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA): Miss Emm
Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mrs Carlton
Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead: Mrs Bates, Mrs Ford & Mrs Pollard
Alongside our pastoral team, we also have our fantastic Pupil Mental Health Ambassadors. These children have a responsibility for leading and promoting positive mental health throughout school and have received bespoke training to provide them with the necessary skills to offer a range of positive coping strategies to their friends and classmates who are in need.
What to do if I am worried about my child’s mental health & wellbeing?
Mental health doesn’t mean being happy all the time and neither does it mean avoiding stresses altogether. One of the most important ways to help your child is to listen to them and take their feelings seriously.
In many instances, children’s negative feelings and worries usually pass with the support of their parents and families. However, it is helpful for the school to know what they are going through at these times, so that staff can be aware of the need and support this.
If you are ever worried about your child’s mental health and wellbeing then, just as you would about any concerns that you have about their learning, please do come and talk to us. You can send an email to your child’s class teacher via the school office email: admin@downton-pri.wilts.sch.uk or email our SENCO senco@downton-pri.wilts.sch.uk.
Sometimes children will need additional support for a short period – this may be in the form of a daily check-in with a trusted adult, time to talk through what they are feeling and support in developing ways of moving forwards with this. We can also offer you advice and signposting for specific services and support.
If your child is distressed for a longer period of time, if their feelings are stopping them from doing things they enjoy, if their distress is disrupting family life or if they are repeatedly behaving in ways you would not expect at their age, and you have not spoken to us already, then please speak to us as soon as you can or contact the GP as you child may be in need of some more specialist support.
We run half termly mental health workshops which support parents with understanding children’s mental health and developing strategies to support and develop this at home. For a virtual copy of a recent workshop, please click here.
Looking after yourself
If things are getting you down, it’s important to recognise this. Talk to someone you trust and see what they think. It is easy to go on struggling with very difficult situations because you feel that you should be able to cope and don’t deserve any help, but the truth is that at times, we all need a little help and support. So please come and talk to us, in confidence and let us know when things are tough. We are here to support you.
Go to your GP if things are really getting on top of you. Asking for some support from your doctor or a referral to a counselling service is a sign of strength. You can’t help your child if you are not being supported yourself.
Useful Websites
On Your Mind Wiltshire - https://www.onyourmind.org.uk
Young Minds – https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
Downton 4 Family - https://downton4family.org.uk
CAMHS - https://www.oxfordhealth.nhs.uk/camhs/wilts/salisbury/
Winston’s Wish – www.winstonswish.org/
Young Carers
Do you think you know a young carer? By definition, a young carer is someone under the age of 18 who looks after a family member or another close relative who has a physical or mental health condition, or misuses drugs or alcohol. They may also look after brothers, sisters or elderly relatives too.
1 in 5 young people are caring for someone - it could be a parent, grandparent, sibling or family friend. They take on extra responsibilities, like dressing the person they look after, cooking, cleaning, shopping, collecting prescriptions. It's a lot to take on as a child.
Below is a poster of ways you can get help and support for a child who is a young carer. As a school, we can support you with this so please get in touch.
