Supporting the wellbeing of our WPS School Community

Supporting the mental heallth and wellbeing of members of our WPS community is a priority.

Mrs Eagleton is the senior staff member responsible for leading and co-ordinating WPS support for mental health. 

Mr Mooney supports Mrs Eagleton in this role.

Mr Berry is our PSHCE Lead.

Miss O’Connor is our designated safeguarding lead

In this section you will find information about how we support the mental health of our children and community members as well as how we support staff through the Dfe Education Staff Wellbeing Charter.

Ensuring staff are fully equipped to support our children is cruicial and our staff research project for this year is based on the mental health of our community.

How we support our children. 

At WPS, we believe that the wellbeing of our children’s hearts and minds are just as important as their physical wellbeing. When children don’t feel well in their body, we tend to know immediately what could help, whether that’s giving our children rest, medication, or taking them to see a doctor. We try to think about our children’s minds in a similar way. That is, when they are show signs of difficulty or distress, to think with parents, families and other professionals about ways to help them. it is our responsibility to work towards achieving what is best for each child, for us, this means making sure that we support and nurture each pupil to be ready to learn and work towards achieving their potential, in whatever way is best for them as an individual.

 We understand we have an important role to play in helping our pupils to develop their emotional and mental wellbeing and developing a growth mind-set. We talk about and promote positive mental health, as we believe this can contribute towards improving a range of outcomes for our pupils, including attitudes to learning and better attendance.  This is supported by our inclusive ethos and our school values  We achieve this through:

Our Curriculum: 

Weekly PSHCE lessons; circle times; worry boxes for children to share their worries and fears; assemblies, all focus on supporting our pupils to develop the qualities, skills and attributes they need to thrive as individuals, family members and members of society, now and in the future. 

We have a range of strategies to support children needing additional support for various aspects of mental well being such as anxiety.

Through our own triage system, children can access pastoral support and in school therapy work. We also offer Seedlings Counselling and Mental Well being support with a mental health worker.

Staff:

All of our staff focus on promoting wellbeing, modelling positive relationships and supporting our pupils to take care of themselves and others. We encourage our pupils’ right to have their voices heard and provide them with a space to speak.  We recognise the importance of providing appropriate support when children are struggling and so provide specialised help from: our pastoral support staff, Mrs Graham and school therapist Ms Moore. 

They support our pupils’ wellbeing through social and emotional support, 1:1 or group focus sessions on dealing with conflict, recognising emotions, friendship, bereavement support, mental health first aid – whatever meets the needs of our pupils.

They also signpost parents/carers to appropriate agencies for help with housing, finances, family conflict, bereavement support etc and are always available with a listening ear!

Follow the blue link to our pastoral support page for further information. WPS Pastoral Support

We also work closely with a range of specialst services and are able to provide specific counselling support through the Seedlings programme and family level support through the School Family Support Service.

The information below provide links to a range of further support and help.

Support in Liverpool

Mersyside Youth Association http://www.mya.org.uk  

Young Persons Advisory service – offers free counselling and small group –  www.ypas.org.uk/                         

National support

Young Minds – mental health support for young people https://www.youngminds.org.uk/

Childline – https://www.childline.org.uk/ – Lots of visual and online resources as well as access to free counsellors via email and telephone.

Help for Parents/Carers, to support the mental health of children

Liverpool based support

• Fresh CAMHS – Mental health Support for children and young people based at Alder Hey http://www.freshcamhs.org/
• Young Persons Advisory service (YPAS)– offers free counselling and small group work across the south, north & central part of the city         http://www.ypas.org.uk/

Support for children on the ASD pathway or that have a diagnosis

• ADDvanced Solutions Community Network – Community based learning, coaching and mentoring programmes and health, wellbeing and enrichment activities for families living with Neurodevelopmental conditions. http://www.addvancedsolutions.co.uk/
• The Isabella Trust – Aims to support parents, carers and families of children with autism and sensory difficulties by providing support, information and access to training, courses and workshops.      https://www.theisabellatrust.org/
• ADHD Foundation – The ADHD Foundation works in partnership with individuals, families, doctors, teachers and other agencies to improving emotional well being, educational attainment, behaviour and life chances through better understanding and self management of ADHD, ASD and related learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, Irlen’s Syndrome, dyscalculia and Tourette’s Syndrome. https://www.adhdfoundation.org.uk/

National support

• Young Minds – mental health support for young people https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
• National website to support families with confidential helpline  – https://www.familylives.org.uk/
• MindEd is a free educational resource on children and young people’s mental health for all adults minded.org.uk/
• Childline – Online resources as well as access to free counsellors via email and telephone https://www.childline.org.uk/

Bereavement support

• Winston’s Wish – is the leading childhood bereavement charity in the UK offering practical support and guidance to bereaved children, their families and professionals. https://www.winstonswish.org/
• Child bereavement UK – Supports families when a baby or child of any age dies or is dying, or when a child is facing bereavement https://www.childbereavementuk.org/

Support for School Staff

The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families has produced a booklet for primary and secondary schools to support all staff working in school settings to understand how best to help children and young people in their care. Please see the booklet and a link to their website below.

https://www.annafreud.org/schools-and-colleges/resources/supporting-mental-health-and-wellbeing-in-schools/

 For the booklet to support staff in school click here  – Booklet to support staff in school

Staff Wellbeing and Mental Health

The education staff wellbeing charter is a declaration of support for, and set of commitments to, the wellbeing and mental health of everyone working in education.

The charter is for education staff in England. This includes temporary and support staff. WPS signed up to the charter in March 2022, as a shared commitment to protect, promote and enhance the wellbeing of our staff.

You can see a copy of the charter below. At WPS we focus on different areas of the charter each half-term and dicuss our progress at staff development sessions, SLT and governors meetings. Regular anonymised staff surveys help us to keep in touch with staff needs and provide support necessary.