Wellbeing

Whether you are 5 or 50, life can be complicated! At Longacre we are dedicated to helping the children to navigate the ever-changing world around them. We aim to enable them to understand themselves and the world around them and this is pivotal to all that we do.

We are committed to creating a dialogue for the children around mental health that is open and understood and without stigma. We have a Designated Mental Health Lead who works across the whole school, and an Assistant Head (Pastoral) who works alongside our whole school community to make sure that the wellbeing and mental health is a top priority, which is reflected within our policies and whole school ethos.

We have many formal and informal types of support available. Our pastoral ‘triage’ system means that our Class Teacher are always our first touch point. After this there are various directions, all via our Assistant Head (Pastoral) and, if relevant, our SENCO. With plenty of interventions available ranging from Drawing and Talking and Lego therapy to ELSA and our School Counsellor.

We use a pastoral management system called PASS which helps identify, at an early stage, those children who are at a hidden risk of developing social and emotional difficulties; we know how to help them and can track their progress over the coming terms. The aim is that working proactively and strategically will result in significantly reducing the number of children in need of critical pastoral support in the future. The children answer comprehensive surveys twice a year which we collate action plans and talking points around children we have highlighted.

Types of support available:

Mindfulness in the Curriculum

How would children and their learning benefit if they could be aware of their thoughts and feelings as they happen, in the present moment, on purpose with no judgement?

How could being mindful help to address the emotional health and behaviour issues so often acting as barriers to learning?

Longacre delivers the Jigsaw PSHE Programme ‘The Mindful Approach’. With strong emphasis on emotional literacy, building resilience and nurturing mental and physical health, Jigsaw allows the teachers to deliver engaging and relevant PSHE within a whole-school approach. Jigsaw lessons also include mindfulness, allowing children to advance their emotional awareness, concentration and focus. As part of the children’s weekly PSHE lessons, mindfulness is developed in three main ways:

• through the ‘Calm Me’ time in each lesson. This consists of breathing techniques, awareness exercises and visualisations, enabling children not to empty their minds but to quiet them and become aware of the activity within them and manage it positively.
• through the taught curriculum. Lessons help children to explore their thoughts and feelings, to expand their emotional vocabulary, explore thoughts-feelings-consequence sequences, build their confidence and express themselves in a safe environment.
• through the ‘Pause Points’ in lessons which ask children to ‘Stop and look inside’ to practice observing their thoughts and feelings relating to what they are learning about in that lesson.

The Bear Hut

In 2019 we launched a new dedicated wellbeing space, with the support of the PTA, as a physical hub and home for a number of the different wellbeing initiatives we have introduced into school life. The ‘Bear Hut’, named after the bear featured in the school’s logo, has proven both popular and effective. It stands very proudly in the hub of our quad – at the crossroads of school life and visible and welcoming for everyone.

Creating the right environment for children’s wellbeing is about creating the right physical environment as much as the right emotional environment. The Bear Hut is a special, dedicated space for children to come and talk about their feelings – it provides a safe, quiet, welcoming environment where children can be listened to.

The Bear Hut is also where our intervention groups run and our School Listener (counsellor), Ati, also works with children from this space.

WELLBEING ROOM

We have recently developed a new space which is our dedicated wellbeing room. This room always has either our Assistant Head (Pastoral) or our SENCO ready to take care of any children who might be finding the day overwhelming or who need a moment to recalibrate before heading back to lessons. It is a calm and tranquil space that again highlights the importance of pastoral care within our school community.

School Listener

We are also proud to offer children, staff and parents access to our School Listener, Atifa. Ati is a BACP registered therapist and uses many different techniques to help our Longacre community to take care of their wellbeing. We offer therapy for children or simply an extra ear to listen to. Ati runs meditation sessions for all classes, vision boarding, tapping techniques, creative art therapy, breathing exercises and visualisation, to name but a few methods she uses to help our children take ownership of their own feelings, learn ways of understanding themselves and find techniques to help themselves feel better that will hopefully continue way into adulthood.

Ati also runs regular ‘Decompression Sessions’ for parents where we have the opportunity to relax and reset for the day ahead after drop off. If you would like more information about our additional pastoral offerings at school then please do contact tpandey@longacreschool.co.uk