Children's Well-Being

Please find a message below from BRIDGEWATER COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST

Good Morning all hope you are all safe and well. following on from the email yesterday.

As you may be aware, the School Nursing Service has been available via telephone and email contact throughout the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. As restrictions begin to lift we know that more school aged children are accessing school, however there remain many who are not, and are not likely to until September.

We are hoping that you can support us in ensuring that we can still reach out to all of our children, young people and families and offer support and advice regarding both physical and mental health and wellbeing if required. We are hoping to utilise a variety of ways to do this, including email contact, telephone contact, virtual face to face contact and direct face to face contact (using appropriate PPE) in the most suitable agreed venue for the young person/parent.

Any children or young people who you or your staff think may benefit from our support can still be referred to us on the attached referral form. If we can arrange to see them in school that would be good, otherwise we can attempt home visits or clinic appointments.

Our contact details and the link to our webpage for young people and parents / carers are below. Could you please include this information in any newsletter or other correspondence that you are having with young people and/or parents?

Your support is very much appreciated.

School Nursing Team: South Team School Nurses,

Grappenhall Clinic, Springfield Avenue, Grappenhall, Warrington, WA4 2NW

Contact Details: (01925) 867830

 Email: alwch.0to19@nhs.net

School nursing webpage link:

http://bridgewater.nhs.uk/warrington/warrington-school-health/

Children's Health and Well-Being

The health and well-being of the children at our school is of paramount importance.   

We believe we, (as do other schools) have a vital role to play in prevention, spotting early warning signs, and supporting good mental health and well-being for all children and young people.

We want the children in our school to think and learn about different ways to keep themselves healthy - physically and mentally.   We have a whole-school approach in which the whole school community participates in our well-being programmes and we incorporate mental health into areas of our curriculum.  We have a designated Mental Health First Aider who has received training, funded by the NHS. 

We seek to understand and reduce the risk factors that can affect well-being, and help pupils develop the resilience to overcome adverse circumstances.    We explicitly teach children about social and emotional skills, attitudes and values, we have well trained and enthusiastic teachers and integrate this learning into school life.

Throughout the year, we strive to provide the children with a happy place to learn, but also look to ways that we can develop our children into life-long happy and healthy people.

The Department for Education (DfE) has issued guidance for schools on mental health and behaviour in schools.

The DfE's guidance includes advice for schools in how they identify and monitor problems with pupils' mental health and well-being.  As suggested in the guidance, our school staff record concerns about issues such as academic progress, social and emotional development, and behaviour. The guidance explains that this:

... ensures that a rounded picture of children at risk of mental health problems is available to staff, which includes all the relevant information ...

Health education is to be made compulsory in all schools in England under new government plans following growing concerns about mental health problems among children and young people.  Our children are taught the benefits of healthy eating and keeping fit.

Our children will be taught how to build mental resilience – as well as how to recognise when their peers are struggling with mental health issues.

Our school's Inclusion Manager and Safeguarding Team meet once every six weeks to discuss and identify individual pupils or groups of pupils who may be at risk.

We use PSHE to help the children build on these life skills and their awareness of mental health, sex and relationships and physical well-being. 

To continuously promote health and well-being in school we provide opportunities for children to:

• Sports clubs at lunchtime and after school. 
• Eileen works with children each week, helping them learn how to relax and be calm, how to concentrate and how to control feelings of anxiousness.   She uses guided meditation stories,  teaches children breathing techniques and  how to be in tune with their senses.
• Celebrating differences; when we celebrate the diverse nature of our world.
• Healthy Food; run in partnership with the School Meals Service in Warrington.  
• Healthy relationship workshops are delivered by the school nurse and external charities such as NSPCC. 

These are the things our children had in their 'Stress Bucket'.

Here are some examples of what our children have said about their lessons with Eileen.

The children were asked what words they would use to describe Eileen’s Yoga lessons.

Fun

Happy

Nice

Joyful

Ticklish

Relaxing

Enjoyable

Calm

Exercise

Brilliant

Grateful

Fantastic

Amazing

Bendy

Cool

Peaceful

Comforting

Quiet

Adventurous

Gentle

Concentrated

Losing worries

Awesome

Creative

Imaginative

De-stressful

Clear-minded

Problem free

Children said, "It makes me very happy,”   “Your stress floats away," and  “Forget all your worries.”

Mark out of 10 how relaxing and calm you have felt in the lessons (10 most relaxed).