Belle Vue Primary School
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Our Vision
At Belle Vue Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community (children, staff, parents and carers), and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing 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.
The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that: “in order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. Schools can be a place for children and young people to experience a nurturing and supportive environment that has the potential to develop self-esteem and give positive experiences for overcoming adversity and building resilience. For some, school will be a place of respite from difficult home lives and offer positive role models and relationships, which are critical in promoting children’s wellbeing and can help create a sense of belonging and community.
Our role in school is to ensure that children are able to manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children 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.
Our aim is to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and to be a school where:
- All children are valued and know that they are all unique.
- Children have a sense of belonging and feel safe.
- Children feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma.
- Positive mental health is promoted and valued.
We offer different levels of support:
Universal Support– To meet the needs of all our pupils through our overall ethos and our wider curriculum.
Additional support– For those who may have short term needs and those who may have been made vulnerable by life experiences such as bereavement.
Targeted support– For pupils who need more differentiated support and resources or specific targeted interventions such as wellbeing groups.
Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead is Mrs Gail Adams
Our Deputy Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead is Mrs Diana Hickson
Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Governor is Mrs Sarah Cooper
Mental Health First Aiders (MHFA)
Our Mental Health First Aiders are listed below. Mental Health First Aiders attend training which looks at how to support young people and adults to recover faster from mental and emotional health issues and how to intervene more effectively at points of mental health crisis.
Our MHFA have been trained to have:
- An in-depth understanding of mental health and the factors that can affect wellbeing
- Practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues
- Confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress
- Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
- Knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support.
Please ask a member of staff in our school office if you would like to speak to one of our Mental Health First Aiders.
Useful links:
Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families
Carlisle Eden Mind - Your local Mental Health Charity (cemind.org)
0-19 Child and Family Support Service - Family Action (family-action.org.uk)