Well-being & Mental Health

Wellbeing and mental health is embedded throughout the school and its curriculum: it is at the heart of what we do. It is important that children are encouraged and supported to look after their mental health and we have a well-being group of children across the school who work to support our whole school community.

Well-being Group

At Peninsula East Primary Academy, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of pupils, families and staff. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody's business and that we all have a role to play.

We nominate a Wellbeing Champion in each of our classes, from Year 1 to 6. We use our kindest, most caring and reflective pupils who are up for the task!

Our Wellbeing Champions will be role model pupils who support pupils across the school. They will need to listen to others, be a friendly face and help everyone to feel their best. We will meet with these children in each module to work together on ensuring our school is a happy place to be.

ELSA

ELSA stands for Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. Our trained ELSA is Mrs Drogomirecki, She sees pupils once a week for half hour sessions. During these sessions the children will work on a range of different activities.

The session will all be structured in the same way.

Emotional Check in activity

During this part of the lesson we will talk about feelings and why they might be feeling this way at the moment.

Main activity

From looking at the screening questionnaire completed by your child’s class teacher and the feedback that you have given me about your child. This might be around self esteem, understanding their emotions, friendships etc.

Relaxation

During this part of the session we will look at a relaxation exercise or play a game before the session finishes.

Review

During this last part of the session we will review the session and see what we have learnt about your child’s strengths and the talents that they have in this area.

Drawing & Talking

Drawing and Talking is a therapeutic intervention for children, young people and adults. It is designed as a short-term, time limited, pro-active intervention intended to complement, rather than replace, the work of specialist mental health services.

Through a 12-week cycle of 30-minute one-to-one sessions, this non-intrusive tool allows individuals to discover and communicate emotions through a non-directed technique. This is what sets Drawing and Talking apart from existing solution-focused and cognitive-based therapies and interventions.

Arlo

We have a school dog, Arlo, who supports pupils with coming into school and regulating their emotions.

Young Leaders

All children in Year 6 have been trained to become Young Leaders. This involves all of the children having responsbility for leading mini games on the playground at lunchtime, as well as having the opportunity to work with children from a range of year groups.

The children take it in turns on a rota to lead small games, work with different children while also taking leadership and agency over what they are doing.

Half of the Year 5 children have been trained to do this now, with the rest of the children being trained later in the year.

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