Mental Health and Well Being

At RFPS, we are committed to supporting the mental health and well being of our children and staff. We have a supportive and caring ethos and our approach is respectful and kind. Every member of our school community is valued, respected and treated fairly and consistently. We promote good relationships so that we can all work together with the common purpose of helping everybody achieve their potential.

We actively promote good Mental Health and Well Being for both staff and children at our school and it is part of our overall aim to ensure that we create an environment at RFPS where both children and staff feel happy, safe and secure.

We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.

At our school we:

• help members of our school community understand their emotions and feelings better
• encourage sharing of any concerns or worries
• promote good relationships at all levels, offering support when needed in developing these
• promote self esteem and ensure everybody knows that they are very much valued
• encourage our school community to be confident and ‘dare to be different’
• help develop emotional resilience and give support in managing setbacks.

We promote a mentally healthy environment for our children through:

• Promoting our school values and encouraging a sense of belonging
• Promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision-making
• Celebrating academic and non-academic achievements
• Developing Talents and celebrating these within others
• Providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
• Providing opportunities to reflect
• Giving access to appropriate support that meets each individual’s needs
• Ensuring adults are positive role models for our children at all times

We promote a mentally healthy environment for our staff through:

• Working closely as a team ensuring support and help is always close at hand
• Identifying individual needs, recognising these and responding to them as appropriate
• Having a range of strategies that support their mental health, e.g. a named line manager to speak to, signposting
• Showing recognition of a work-life balance
• Regularly review stress levels and staff feelings through questionnaires
• Ensuring everybody feels valued and has opportunities to contribute to decision-making processes
• Celebrating and recognising success
• Providing opportunities for CPD both personally and professionally
• Proactively exercising strategies and systems to support staff at times of emotional need in both the short term and the long term

We promote a mentally healthy environment for our parents and carers through:

• Recognising the significant contribution they make to their children’s education and mental health
• Ensuring they are welcomed, included and work in partnership with any external agencies involved with their child
• Ensure they are provided with opportunities where they can ask for help when needed

• Positively signposting appropriate agencies who can offer support for both parents and children with emotional well being needs or mental health concerns
• Being clear about their roles and expectations and their responsibilities in working in partnership with schools, seeking their opinions and responding to these when possible

• Working closely with parents to provide consistently good role models for our children, all of which value their emotional well being.

We pursue our aims through ensuring our whole school ethos and environment is one where:

• Mental Health and Well Being is actively discussed and promoted positively
• Support is available for any member of our school community who is experiencing challenges or needs support for any reason including temporary, unexpected circumstances such as bereavement
• Specialised, targeted approaches are put in place where necessary to give the appropriate support where more complex or long term difficulties are evident e.g. attachment disorder.

The skills, knowledge and understanding needed by our children to keep themselves mentally healthy and safe are included as part of our SMSC provision. We actively discuss mental health and in particular ‘feelings’ and what these can lead to as part of our assembly program, our specific events e.g. mental health week and our weekly PSHE curriculum. We tailor our teaching to the needs of the class or cohort and individual support is given as needed. We always ensure that mental  health and emotional well being issues are taught in a safe and sensitive manner with their importance acknowledged and discussion encouraged.