Vaughan Primary School is an outstanding school that delivers high quality, nurturing provision that focuses on developing the whole child. This has been recognized through the school receiving a number of awards, including the Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence and GOLD School Games Mark.

This was further validated during our 2019 OFSTED inspection which stated that “...the school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is outstanding” and that “...pupils’ welfare and well-being are given as high a priority as their academic achievement.”

The emotional wellbeing of children is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health allows children and young people to develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into well-rounded, healthy adults.   At Vaughan Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff parents and carers. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and, at times, anyone may need additional emotional support.

All children can experience ups and downs in their life and some unfortunately have to face significant life events which will affect their mental health and wellbeing.  In 2017, about 1 in 10 children aged between 5 and 16 had a diagnosable mental health need.  This can have a huge impact on the child’s experience of life, their relationships and their achievements at school.  To this end, the Department of Education acknowledges that “in order for children to succeed, schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. 

At our school we:

• help children to understand their emotions and feelings better                             
• help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
• help children socially to form and maintain relationships
• promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they count
• encourage children to be confident and ‘dare to be different’
• help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks 

To support this, we have two Learning Mentors who all children across the school can access in times of need.   As an integrated part of the learning support team within Vaughan, the aim of the Learning Mentors is to work with children and their families to help them manage times of change or difficulty, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access support when they need it. They also work to ensure that children learn how to maintain positive mental health, what can affect 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.

Some of the issues a child may experience which become a barrier to their learning could include:

• Anxiety, worries and low mood
• Difficulties at home
• Behaviour
• Issues concerning bullying/friendships/social anxieties
• Dealing with bereavement/loss 
• General disaffection and disengagement from learning 
• Worries about transferring from primary to high school 
• Difficulties with organisation

Our Learning Mentors offer mentoring and support to individuals, groups, teachers, parents/carers and families.  We also work with other schools and outside agencies, helping to construct a support network. 

They are here to provide non-judgemental and confidential support to all our pupils and their families.  The aim is to help them overcome any social, emotional or behavioural barriers which may be getting in the way of their learning and positive behaviour.  Our aim is to promote resilience and coping skills for life’s ups and downs. 

Early intervention for young people with emotional, behavioural or social difficulties can help prevent mental health problems becoming more serious in the future or developing in the first place.

Our CBT Counsellor is Alison Fink and our Learning Mentor is Dimple Hirani who between them have many years’ experience working and have both worked in different roles, supporting children throughout the school.  They are also trained facilitators for the Friends Resilience Programme, (supporting children with anxiety to develop resilience), Sunbeams/Rainbows (supporting children who have experienced loss) and the NSPCC PANTS Programme which teaches children how to keep themselves safe.  They also offer Space to Talk, a drop-in service where children can talk about any worries they might have. 

Mrs Fink - CBT Counsellor

Alison has an MSc in CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) for Children and Young People from UCL/Anna Freud Centre.  She has further training in Mindfulness and delivers it to both groups and individual children.  Alison also facilitates anxiety and mindfulness workshops for parents and has experience in delivering parenting groups and courses.  She also provides CBT outreach work to other schools. 

Miss Hirani - Learning Mentor

Miss Hirani is qualified in Level 3 Advanced Safeguarding, Youth MHFA, Bereavement care, Mental health champions Place2Be and SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning).

Dimple runs Social Skills interventions throughout the school and 1:1 Mentoring to support children with their wellbeing and mental health, runs lunch clubs, breaktime friendship support, provides a safe space to talk for children, anger and behaviour management strategies and high school transition support.

 

We all have mental health. Mental Health is about our feelings, our thoughts, our emotions and our moods.

We all have a range of feelings everyday and our moods fluctuate and change all the time.  Feelings can be happy or sad and can be very strong or feel overwhelming but usually tend to pass before too long.

Sometimes we might experience very big or overwhelming feelings which affect our daily lives and stop us from doing or enjoying things that we would normally do. This is the time we might need some help or support.