Stanford Junior and Infant School
Living together - Learning together
At Stanford Junior & Infant School we work hard to ensure that everyone is safe and happy. This includes trying to ensure that the mental health and wellbeing of everyone in the school community is adequately supported. The following guidelines help us to do that.
We know that COVID-19 will have serious impacts on the lives of women, children and men who are experiencing domestic abuse. They may feel unsafe with the prospect of being isolated in the house with their perpetrator and the current restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus are likely to result in an increase in domestic abuse incidents.
Please be reassured that numerous local and national domestic abuse support services remain in place and are working hard to ensure they can still offer support during this challenging time.
If you, or someone you know, are affected by domestic abuse, call Women’s Aid (who support both men and women) on 01472 575757.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 999 and ask for the police. If you can’t speak, dial 999 and then 55 to still get help.
For contact details of further domestic abuse support services visit: www.safernel.co.uk/domestic-abuse
Techniques for helping kids keep calm
NE Lincs Children & Young People’s Health & Wellbeing Newsletter
Compass Talking Matters Newsletter
The Lullaby Trust - safe sleeping tips for keeping babies safe in hot weather
Mental Health and Wellbeing for parents & easing lockdown - local guidance on supporting parents mental health and wellbeing.
Giving: Do things for others
Relating: Connect with people
Exercising: Take care of your body
Awareness: Live life mindfully
Trying out: Keep learning new things
Direction: Have goals to look forward to
Resilience: Find ways to bounce back
Emotions: Focus on what's good
Acceptance: Be comfortable with who you are
Meaning: Be part of something bigger
Each month the organisation publish a happiness calendar, September is Self-care Month. Whether you do the activities suggested on the right day or not; there are some really useful prompts.
Here are links to useful information to support a healthy lifestyle.
See Hear Respond is a service provided across England by Barnardo’s and other national and local community-based organisations in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
The programme has been created to help children and young people in England who are experiencing harm and increased adversity during this period by providing support to those who are not being seen by social care or other key agencies.
Working with its partners, Barnardo’s aims to reduce the likelihood of harm and ensure other support and protective networks are in place.
See Hear Respond accept referrals from any source either through the Freephone number 0800 151 7015 and via the online referral hub.
Good mental health is of fundamental importance to learning. When young people are happy, they can be attentive and receptive to new ideas and concepts.
Mental health is how we feel, how we think and how we behave. Mental Health promotion for children and young people is everybody’s business.
It is about:
We recognise that all children and young people need the foundation of positive mental health to benefit fully from all of the opportunities available to them.
All children and young people need to:
An app to teach you how to catch your thinking and challenge it to be more optimistic, resilient and mindful?
Positive Penguins is an award winning, top ranked, fun educational app developed for children to help them understand why they feel the way they do and help them challenge their negative thinking. The app aims to help children understand their feelings come from their own thoughts not the situations. Often the anxiety and stress we feel comes from not real threats, but stories we make up in our heads. The four positive penguins take you on a journey to help you understand that feelings arise from your thinking and if you challenge your negative thoughts successfully you may be able to see things in a more realistic and even optimistic way.
Children often feel anxious, angry, frustrated, bullied, worried etc and that is normal – however, few children are taught to be mindful, catch the thoughts that led them to these feelings and challenge them if needed. They can then change the way the feel and behave.
Everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable. At times, anyone may need additional support to maintain or develop good mental health. We should be aware that –
The mental health of children and young people, adults in school, parents and carers and the wider whole school community will impact on all areas of development, learning, achievement and experiences. All children and young people have the right to be educated in an environment that supports and promotes positive mental health for everybody. All adults have the right to work in an environment that supports and promotes positive mental health for everybody.
Stanford Junior & Infant School recognises these needs and rights. We are committed to raising awareness, increasing understanding and ensuring that we can and do make a difference by providing a place where all children and young people feel safe, secure and able to achieve and experience success and well-being.
At Stanford Junior & Infant School we offer a learning environment that promotes and enhances positive mental health. A consistent approach means that our school environment and school ethos all promote the mental health of the whole school community.
Healthy relationships underpin positive mental health and have a significant impact.
A mentally healthy environment has:
A mentally healthy environment is a place where children and young people:
A mentally healthy environment is a place where staff:
A mentally healthy environment is a place where parents/carers:
A mentally healthy environment is a place where the whole school community:
A healthy learning environment provides opportunities that promote positive mental health, through the standard curriculum and extended provision, e.g. SMSC, pastoral support, play therapy, coaching sessions, differentiated learning activities, individual timetables, challenging stereotypes, etc.
The implementation of these guidelines for promoting positive mental health in school:
This guidance offers opportunities to measure the impact in a variety of ways, e.g. school’s ethos, staff well-being, feedback from the whole school community, number of external referrals, improved relationships.
The promotion of positive mental health for children and young people is everybody’s business.
Today we have enjoyed Lego Club with Mrs Fielding.
Lego Club helps us to develop important social skills such as; working together, listening to one another, taking turn and helping our friends.
At Lego club we have to build a model as a team, we each have a role to play to ensure that the model is built correctly.
Part Supplier |
Sorts out and finds the bricks as instructed by the designers and passes them to the builder |
Designer |
Follows the Lego plans and instructs the part supplier by describing the bricks needed and tells the builder where to put them. |
Builder |
Listens to the designers instructions to put the bricks in the correct place to build the model |
Here we are during a session.
Our Young Minds Matter link worker, Jayne Jennings, came and delivered an assembly to the whole school on What is Mental Health
Thank you to Jayne from ‘Young Minds Matter’ as she visited school to lead the Parents/Carers Workshop about ‘What is mental health?’
Thank you to the parents/carers and community members who attended. It was a really useful and positive workshop.
Please see contact details for kooth (11+) and Young Minds Parents Support Line - telephone number - 08088025544.
Take a look at our brand new outdoor Gym equipment in the Key Stage 2 playground! We will be exercising and having fun all at once!
Juniper and Star Anise Class had a real treat with their learning this afternoon. We went in the hall and were greeted by Fun into Food team who explained the cooking event. They were 2 pupils and a teacher in each team and the rest of us were the audience. Each team had 15 minutes to prepare a healthy meal. Green team cooked Mexican bean Burrito with a Tomato and Cucumber Salsa. Red team cooked Thai Green Curry and Aromatic rice.
We were reminded about healthy eating and the main food groups.
After the cooking we all got to sample the food. Following this everyone voted. The Green team’s recipe was most popular.
