Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing
The National Children’s Bureau have developed the Wellbeing Award for Schools, which is intended to help schools prepare and equip themselves to promote emotional wellbeing and positive mental health across the whole-school community. Broom Valley are embarking upon the journey towards attaining this award, striving to further build upon our culture and ethos, where good emotional wellbeing and mental health are at the heart school, so that both pupils and staff, with the correct support, can build confidence and flourish. Evidence shows us that wellbeing is of central importance to learning and attainment, with high levels of wellbeing associated with improved academic outcomes. On the other hand, pupils who have mental health problems are more likely to have academic difficulties at school and may experience social disadvantage later in adult life.
There are four key principles driving the ideas and recommendations behind the award:
- Emotional wellbeing and mental health are a continuum. Related issues can range from positive attitudes and behaviour, through to experiences of emotional distress and mental disorder.
- Schools already experience and manage emotional issues on a daily basis; the objective is to minimise the impact of such issues and maximise the effectiveness of any responses.
- Emotional wellbeing covers a range of dimensions, such as resilience, character building, relationships and self-esteem, etc. Understanding both developmental and mental health awareness is critical.
- Creating a positive school culture requires a whole-school approach that is led from the top while involving all in the school community.
Embarking on the award process does not mean that school is failing in this area, but rather that we feel that the needs and demands of our children, staff and community are changing and we are committed to responding to them.
We know that for many adults and children, mental health can be seen as a difficult and at times frightening issue. As a society, we are starting to deal with this stigma, but, unfortunately, there still exist plenty of negative views and attitudes that cause barriers to go up. As professionals and as parents, we can feel unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with these issues, seeing mental health as the domain of the ‘specialist’.
Please find below a list of organisations, who are able to support and advise on mental health and wellbeing.
https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/