At Landywood 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. All children go through ups and downs during their school career and some face significant life events.

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.

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.
•  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.
•  Bullying is not tolerated.

We use the World Health Organisation’s definition of mental health and wellbeing

“ a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”.

Mental health and wellbeing is not just the absence of mental health problems. We want all children/young people to:

• Feel confident in themselves.
• Be able to express a range of emotions appropriately.
• Be able to make and maintain positive relationships with others.
• Cope with the stresses of everyday life.
• Manage times of stress and be able to deal with change.
• Learn and achieve.

Please visit our Policies section of the website to read our Mental Health Policy.

Below are some links to documents we would like to share with you as we think they are very helpful:-

Ready to learn everyday leaflet

MindEd  for families leaflet.

Wellbeing book list

Growth Mindset and Emotional Intelligence

Help & Advice Resources - Papyrus UK | Suicide Prevention Charity (papyrus-uk.org)