Pupil Mental Health
Rationale:
When children and young people have good levels of wellbeing it helps them to:
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learn and explore the world.
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feel, express and manage positive and negative emotions.
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form and maintain good relationships with others.
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cope with, and manage change, setbacks and uncertainty
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develop and thrive.
(Mentally Healthy Schools, 2024)
Wellness
We prioritise pupil mental health as it ‘is as important to a child’s safety and wellbeing as their physical health. It can impact on all aspects of their life, including their educational attainment, relationships and physical wellbeing. Mental health can also change over time, to varying degrees of seriousness, and for different reasons.’ (NSPCC, 2024)
Include
We are proud to include all of our children, celebrating the wide range of nationalities, cultures and backgrounds. Everyone has the right to feel a sense of belonging at our school. We ensure that the school environment, curriculum and ethos are representative and inclusive of all pupils at Meadow View Primary School. The diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging team ensure that we know each and every pupil as individuals. We know that we have a duty of care to safeguard and protect each child’s and families’ identity. Recognising and valuing a child’s home language is an integral part of this.Anna Freud, Mentally Healthy Schools (2024) explains that vulnerable groups are more likely to be impacted by poor mental health. As our school has high levels of vulnerability, we need to provide these pupils with the knowledge of neuroscience, the positive mental attitude to love themselves and a toolbox of techniques to employ when times do get tough.
Aspire
The World Health Organisation (2024) identifies that without effective support poor mental health can affect a person’s confidence and identity at work, capacity to work productively, absences and the ease with which to retain or gain work. By prioritising pupil mental health, we are providing our pupils with the best opportunity to aspire and succeed.
Achieve
Mental health problems can affect a student’s energy levels, concentration, dependability, mental ability and optimism, hindering performance. Research suggests that depression is associated with lower grade point averages, and that co-occurring depression and anxiety can increase this association. (Suicide Prevention Resource Center 2020). Therefore, by prioritising pupil metal health, we are increasing a pupil’s opportunity to achieve.
Our Approach to Pupil Mental Health:
Trauma Informed School Approach
At Meadow View Primary School, we work in a trauma informed way and this has become embedded within our school ethos, relationships, and behaviour and mental health policy. We pay particular attention to Panksepp’s emotional systems, attachment theory and the PRRR model (protect, relate, regulate and reflect). We work with pupils and their parents and carers to build secure attachments, promote prosocial chemicals such as dopamine and oxytocin and reduce toxic stress from excess noradrenaline and cortisol. We recognise that when children who have suffered several painful life experiences are unhelped, there is a very high chance of them going on to suffer severe mental and physical ill-health.
ROAR Response
Regulation is something everyone continually works on, whether we are aware of it or not. We all encounter trying circumstances that can test our limits. If we can recognise when we are becoming less regulated, we are able to do something about it to manage our feelings and get ourselves to a healthy place. This comes more naturally for some, but for others it is a skill that needs more attention and practice. At Meadow View Primary School, we use ROAR rainbow and scaling to to recognise, understand, handle and appropriately express our emotions, reflecting upon how regulated we feel and then taking action to address any imbalance that may be present. This tool is used with all children at least twice a day, however can also be used in between these times on a one-to-one or small group basis. Some pupils who need more explicit teaching on regulation, have a more intensive support package around them linked to the ROAR rainbow and scaling.
My Happy Mind
My happy mind is a proactive, structured programme that, at Meadow View Primary school, all pupils from EYFS through to Y6 engage in. It helps to support children by building resilient, balanced and happy minds. There are 5 modules that are taught in each year group, each introducing a new set of content and habits to help children build resilience, self-esteem and confidence, whilst introducing children to neuroscience:
