Mental Health & Well- being is a high priority for pupils and staff at Sutton Road Primary School and the Senior Leadership Team leads this.

How do we promote positive mental health at Sutton Road? 

At our school, we aim to promote positive mental health for every member of our staff and for every child. We pursue this aim using both universal, whole school approaches and specialised, targeted approaches aimed at vulnerable pupils and support for staff.

In addition to promoting positive mental health, we aim to recognise and respond to mental ill-health. In an average classroom, three children will be suffering from a diagnosable mental health issue. By developing and implementing practical, relevant and effective mental health policies and procedures we can promote a safe and stable environment for pupils affected both directly, and indirectly by mental ill-health.

Staff are trained in delivering specific interventions with children. Teaching Assistants are trained in interventions including ELSA, Lego Therapy, Talk & Draw, Emotional toolkit, anger management resources including the Incredible 5 point scale and de-escalation strategies from Coping with Risky Behaviours (CRB) training, Queen Bees and Wannabees intervention and Positive Play. These are delivered with either individuals or groups of children.

The skills, knowledge and understanding needed by our pupils to keep themselves and others physically and mentally healthy and safe are included as part of our developmental PSHE curriculum. This also links to our whole school values and activities such as Talking Points. This approach helps to teach children about life skills including how to manage their own emotions so that they are skilled in articulating how they feel in situations.

All classes practise Take Five practices which focus on grounding and resilience.

Staff well-being is really important at Sutton Road Primary and we expect that all staff are treated with respect by pupils, parents and their team. Staff work incredibly hard with all children in school and the Senior Leadership Team ensure that they are supported well and that CPD meets their needs. A staff well-being team meet and organise events as well as reflecting on how we might reduce workload.

At Sutton Road Primary we offer a range of support for our families – some of the support is accessed in school and other services are accessed through a referral system. Please ask to speak to a member of the Inclusion Team for any advice.

The Inclusion Team are:

Mrs Harvey – Executive Inclusion Leader                                Mrs Blakeley - SENCO