Well-being and Mental Health
Our Well-being and Mental Health Provision
At Sussex Road we put children's wellbeing at the heart of all we do. We believe that children who feel safe and valued will want to learn and will succeed.
We believe that each individual child should be considered according to their unique circumstances and life experiences.
We use the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model as a starting point for understanding the differing needs of our pupils and their capacity to fulfil their potential.
Our tiered approach to well-being provision
- Universal high quality whole school provision
- Targeted approaches for individuals or small groups
- Specialist provision involving wider strategies and external agencies
Tier 1 - Universal high quality whole school provision
We have a whole school approach to our provision for well-being which involves all members of the school community. We use the 5 Steps to Mental Health Programme advocated by the Anna Freud national centre for children and families. This programme identifies a whole school approach across five areas:
You can find out more about the 5 Steps programme here.
Staff have received training to understand how to identify and support pupil wellbeing through using the CARE and Psychological First Aid models.
Sussex Road Well-being Team
We have a school well-being team of staff who promote and support our pupils and staff to maintain healthy wellbeing. The team includes:
Amanda Flaherty: Assistant Headteacher / Inclusion leader and Senior Mental Health Lead
Kate Cawker: SEN assistant teacher and pastoral support
Gemma Sayers: Pupil wellbeing mentor – pastoral support
Vanessa Moon: Support staff advocate for pupil wellbeing
Julie Routh: Support staff advocate for staff wellbeing
Karen Holmes: Forest school nurture provision and pupil wellbeing champions
Jeanette Archer: School counsellor
and ... Benji – our Wellbeing Cockapoo!
Zones of Regulation
At Sussex Road, we use a common language to describe and respond to our emotions. Teachers greet children in their class with a wellbeing check each morning using the Zones of Regulation tool. Children are invited to indicate their emotion zone and to give a reason if they are not in the green zone. We consider the green zone to be the optimal zone for learning and wellbeing. If children are not in the green zone, we will encourage them to make pro-active choices to emotionally regulate. Each class has a display with suggestions of calming activities that can support children to emotionally regulate. For some children, we use the Zones of Regulation tool as a basis for creating individual behaviour support plans. We encourage all families to use the Zones of Regulation tool at home to share our language about emotions. Emotional regulation is an essential life skill.
Tier 2 - Targeted approaches for individuals and small groups
We use a number of targeted approaches including:
- Resilience conversations which identify areas of strength and challenge for pupils
- CBT approaches using a Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviour model
- Containment principles which support emotional regulation
- Restorative conversations to explore the thoughts and feelings of others and ourselves
- Wellbeing sessions for individual pupils with the wellbeing mentor or school counsellor. The effectiveness of these interventions are evaluated using the CORC Wellbeing Measurement Framework. This is an evidence based tool advocated by the Anna Freud Centre for Families and Children. Outcomes of wellbeing interventions are shared with parents.
- PSHE curriculum, Circle Time and related aspects of the Science curriculum
- Targeted training to develop staff understanding of specific needs
- Changes made to school timetable, routines or curriculum to adapt to individual needs
- Supervision sessions for individual members of staff
Tier 3 - Specialist provision involving wider strategies and external agencies
We support families, parents, pupils and staff to access specialist provision in the following ways;
- Early Help and the early prevention teams
- School Nurse Emotional Health Team
- Kent Resilience Hub
- Project Salus
- Specialist Teaching Service
- Health and CAMHS teams
- Domestic Abuse Volunteer Support Service (DAVSS)
- Young Carers
- Education Mental Health Practitioners and Mental Health Support Teams (From September 2022)
- Education Support Charity (Staff wellbeing services)
Useful Links and Resources
Spotlights
An Introduction to Kooth
