Wellbeing

Supporting our pupils, families and staff with Wellbeing and Mental Health is extremely important to us at Kingswood, and ASPIRE, where our emotionally intelligent approach is fully embedded within our daily practice. Our nurturing ethos threads through everything we do, like the writing in a stick of rock and guides and informs our support strategies which are tailored to each child or individual.

We are proud to announce that we achieved the KCC Schools’ Emotional Wellbeing and Resilience Award – November 2021! 

Our children also had their designs chosen for the next KCC Emotional Wellbeing and Resilience Award trophy logo!                   

At Kingswood we feel it is important to celebrate and support Mental Health Awareness weeks to highlight how important it is across the federation to talk about any worries or anxieties our children may have. We encourage our children to talk about mental health where we adopt a ‘safe environment’ in which mental health is part of our daily healthy routines – “Healthy Mind = Happy Mind”

We have a Senior Mental Health Lead practitioner – linked to the Anna Freud Centre – and a Mental Health First Aider on site, both there to support our pupils, staff and families when needed.  As a federation, we have support from the NHS Emotional Wellbeing Team – on hand to ask advice and guidance from when needed.

Our newly set up Nurture base is supported by Nurture Uk, where children can access a ‘safe space’ area to support their engagement with the curriculum, putting their emotional need at the forefront of our practice.

Our daily strategies include the Mood Meter, which supports children to be emotionally intelligent towards their own feelings, as well as others. The meter helps children to recognise and label their feelings, so in time, they can identify which strategies they need to use to support their own mental health and wellbeing. Strategies from calming mindful colouring, to star/square breathing and the grounding technique for KS2.

Our newly designed outside nurture sensory experience within our woodland area has been set up to not only support our children with specialist learning needs, but to also support our active learning curriculum experiences to engage the children in all subjects; from Science to creative writing in Literacy. The space also invites those children who do not wish to play sports at break times to take a moment with friends to sit and talk, listen to the sensory sounds and/or play board games.

Our Wellbeing, Mental Health and Resilience Team – made up of staff from each school who have a passion and individual skill set for wellbeing sends out a collaborative termly Wellbeing newsletter to staff and parents/carers, offering support, guidance and information.

Our Parent/Carer council meets termly where Wellbeing is a constant agenda point so they also have a voice to guide us with impact and relevance.

Our aim is to build a strong sense of character within our children, where they have the skills and strategies to make informed, positive decisions through knowing right from wrong and weighing up the risks. Our pupils earn Character Coins as part of their rewards system, which in turn supports everyone’s wellbeing, as we promote an ethos of a kind, honest and patient approach within our school environment and beyond.

Our priority is to encourage good mental health and teach our children strategies that will support their mental health and wellbeing throughout their lives – not only now, but in their future.

Please see below the latest Wellbeing letters sent to parents:-