Mental Health & Wellbeing at Sylvester
At Sylvester Primary Academy, we are committed to promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing to ensure that our school community is one where everyone is able to thrive. We promote a whole-school approach towards health and wellbeing to encourage our children to reach their full potential and lead fulfilling lives. Our staff work closely with children, parents and carers to help and support mental health and wellbeing to develop happy, inquisitive and resilient leaners who are able to face challenges in a positive and proactive way.
What happens in school?
In Sylvester Primary Academy we follow the 5 ways to wellbeing. On our whole school wellbeing day, all classes participated in activities to support them in being active, learning new things, giving to others, connecting with others and taking notice.
Throughout our school we have had lots of fun and support from Grow Your Mindset to promote pupils and staff to love challenges and be more resilient when making mistakes. In our approach we teach children to be motivated and use different approaches and strategies when we encounter things that we find difficult. As part of our growth mindset culture we encourage children to take risks and remember that practise makes progress.
In our classrooms there are calm areas to support children when they may need a short break from learning or have some difficult feelings that they may need some help to manage.
Mrs Hayes works with groups of children in the calm room to do activities such as peer message, yoga and mindfulness. She helps us to regulate our emotions, make better choices and supports friendships.
To begin our day, we have a soft start where children can walk to class themselves and are greeted with toast by their teachers in the classroom.
Afterschool on Tuesday’s there is a wellbeing and mindfulness club in Miss Hardaker’s classroom for KS2 children. This is an opportunity for children to relax and unwind with activities such as yoga, colouring and breathing exercises. There are a range of other clubs that the children can choose such as art club, chess club and science club!
In Sylvester children support other children and we have a range of roles that the children can complete such as school council, playground pals and mini mates. These children are around in school and on the playground if other children need support or a friend.
Throughout our curriculum the children are taught about mental health and emotional wellbeing. Our PSHE and RSE curriculum teaches children about family and relationships, health and wellbeing, citizenship, economic wellbeing, and safety and the changing body. For more information about how children are taught about safeguarding in our school please see our safeguarding page.
Wellbeing Award for Schools
In 2021 we were awarded the Wellbeing Award for Schools. This award celebrates the dedication of our staff towards mental health and wellbeing and the impact this dedication has had on the children within out school.
Mental Health First Aiders
Miss Hardaker and Mrs Hayes are trained Mental Health First Aiders and are available to support children, staff and families if they are needing support with mental health and wellbeing.
Useful Links
We regularly use external resource in supporting our children, here are a few we encourage you to use:
https://www.annafreud.org/schools-and-colleges/
https://www.annafreud.org/on-my-mind/self-care/apps-delivering-self-help-strategies/
Recognising the signs that a child may be struggling with their mental health can be really hard. A round of help and tips to help you support children who may be experiencing depression, anxiety, suicidal feelings or self-harm can be found via the following link.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/childrens-mental-health/
Heads Together work to ensure that people feel comfortable with their own mental health and wellbeing as well as the mental health and wellbeing of their friends and family.
https://www.headstogether.org.uk/
