Mental Health and Well-being
ELSA
An ELSA in a school is an Emotional Literacy Support Assistant. Examples of support that our school ELSA can offer our children are social skills, emotions, bereavement, social stories and therapeutic stories, anger management, self-esteem, counselling skills such as solution focus and friendship.
The role of Mrs Lamprou as the school’s ELSA has now been extended to include being the school’s family liaison officer. Families can now also access Mrs Lamprou’s vast array of experience and skills to help with all aspects of parenting and family support.
Curriculum Support
As part of our curriculum at Brackenwood Infant School we ensure that all children are provided with sufficient opportunities to understand emotional literacy, in an age appropriate way. Through our well thought out curriculum, we provide all of our children with the opportunities to develop skills and strategies to improve their own mental health and well-being.
Useful Websites
Mindfulness
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom” – Viktor Frankl
Mindfulness is all about being in the moment, calmly acknowledging one's thoughts and feelings. A state of mind where there is an awareness of one's own presence and conscious in the now.
For some people mindfulness was thought of as the new buzz word and that it would be forgotten in a few years time. At Brackenwood Infant School we recognise the importance of the calm state of mind and teaching our children mindfulness, equips them with vital skills that they can take with them throughout their lives.
Our School’s Committee
At Brackenwood Infant School it is our vision that all children are entitled to flourish, academically, socially, emotionally and mentally, enabling them to grow in confidence and be able to participate with confidence in everything that goes on in the wider community. It is widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and well-being influences their cognitive development and learning, as well as their physical and social health and their mental well-being in adulthood. As a result of this, we now have a dedicated Mental Health and Well-being Committee that is made up of Governors and members of staff. This committee meets regularly and if you would like further information about how you could contribute to it, then please contact Mrs Thomas via the ‘Contact Us’ form at the bottom of the page.
Well-Being for Staff
At Brackenwood Infant School we are dedicated in developing and maintaining a working environment that places Mental Health, Well-being and Emotional Health at the heart of what it does. As a result the governors of the school have taken the following steps:
•The school’s marking policy clearly sets out that teacher feedback to children will ‘mainly be verbal rather than written and that teachers will usually mark work during lessons when pupils are present.’
•Teachers are not expected to reply to emails at home or during the weekends (although they may choose to do this).
•The Headteacher and senior leaders of the school have an ‘open door policy,’ that allows all members of staff to feel confident that their feelings and needs are valued.
•Dedicated time is allocated to discuss the school diary so that all teachers are aware of what is coming up over the next two weeks and further if required.
•Teachers are encouraged to take planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) non-contact time, off site.
•Teachers have been provided with a range of services to support them with their own mental health and well-being.
•Appropriate support and training is provided to all members of staff so that they are able to successfully complete all aspect of their job description.
•During January 2021, all staff were offered the opportunity to take part in a 6 week emotional literacy program. This program included before and after questionnaires, group sessions and a 1:1 drop in service that staff can continue to access if required.