Mental Health and Wellbeing
At Beamish Primary School, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community (children, staff, parents and carers), and we recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives. We recognise that children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and that is can affect their learning and achievement.
The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that: “in order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. We believe school should be a place for children and young people to experience a nurturing and supportive environment that has the potential to develop self-esteem and which gives positive experiences for overcoming adversity and building resilience. At Beamish Primary we offer positive role models and relationships, which are critical in promoting children’s wellbeing and which help create a sense of belonging and community.
Our role in school is to ensure that children are able to manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and where they can go if they need help and support.
Our aim is to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and to be a school where:
- All children are valued.
- Children have a sense of belonging and feel safe.
- Children develop self-confidence and resilience.
- Children feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma.
- Positive mental health is promoted and valued.
- Bullying is not tolerated.
Mental health difficulties can be extremely hard to talk about but there is a lot of support available. Below are some links to key organisations offering professional and confidential help:
For children
https://www.eyalliance.org.uk/happy-children-—-taking-care-young-peoples-wellbeing
http://www.wrsps.co.uk/well-being_-_parent_guide_-_final.pdf
For adults
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/mental-health-parenting/
http://www.durham.gov.uk/article/5647/Mental-health-support-for-adults
Our mental health and wellbeing lead is Mrs Russell, who can be contacted at any time through the school office.
