Our Pupils' Wellbeing
We value and seek to know what our children think and feel in a variety of ways. Children have fantastic imaginations, solutions to problems and ideas for improvement. When making changes or planning strategically, we include children in the conversation, we listen out for their concerns and opinions and value their thoughts.
Mental Wellbeing
At Singleton, we want our children to know what mental health means, how it sits alongside their physical health and how they can ensure they are mentally healthy. Below are systems, which we believe support children's mental health.
Nurture
Sometimes a pupil may need some extra support to manage feelings, emotions or a current situation they are managing such as a house move, parental separation or the arrival of a new baby. Whatever the reason for a pupil needing this extra support, the school team will endeavour to put in timely interventions. This may be with a member of staff or a Play Therapist. The school works hard to have excellent home school links, and we ensure we are available at the start and end of days and via class emails to swiftly manage needs. There is usually the Headteacher or another member of staff in her absence, on morning gate duty, so families can pass on any worries they may have.
Worry Box
Everyday life can sometimes be tricky, and it can make children feel sad, lonely, worried, nervous, angry plus many other emotions. Whilst these are 'normal' and part of what makes us human, they can leave children feeling deregulated and unsure of how to express their feelings — sometimes they don't have the words. Often we may see a resulting behaviour which gives an outward clue that a child may need some help.
To support children in getting support sooner rather than later to manage feelings, each class will have a box to post their worry into. They can simply post their name into the box on a post-it note. A symbol placed on the front will indicate that the teacher/teaching assistant needs to check the box. The child will then be offered some time to talk away from other children.
Zones of Regulation
This approach to supporting children's emotional literacy and behaviours, uses a simple colour system to enable children to identify and communicate their 'feelings'. It supports children to accept all feelings as part of a normal spectrum and provides strategies to manage their responses in a variety of situations.
Click Here to see the ZONES poster which you can print out and use at home.
Click Here to read a Parental Guide to Zones of Regulation.
The Daily Dash and Chat
During our morning exercise session, the children have the opportunity to talk with adults and their friends. This opportunity to express any worries, allows children to start their day feeling listened to and problems can start to be resolved. Equally, children may share ideas or opinions, which can be discussed in our House Team meetings.
Playtimes
Morning and lunch playtime offer the perfect opportunity for staff to catch up with children, both in their own and other classes. In our small school, we are able to chat with the majority of the children in our school across the week, which plays a large part in creating 'the family feel' which is integral to our vision and valued by all.
PSHE
Each week the classes have an hour of PSHE lessons. The children follow a well planned curriculum, provided by KAPOW curriculum focusing on Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World. These lessons involve a great deal of discussion and there is plenty of opportunity for our children to share feelings, concerns,opinions and ideas.
Monitoring
Through learning walks, pupil surveys, pupil conferencing and monitoring, the staff and Governors are able to gain insights into what the children feel about our school, how they are cared for, taught and supported. These discussions are recorded either in a formal format, or feed into meetings to be discussed by the staff.