Well Being
Healthy Hearts Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies
Encouraging children to become resilient, independent and to believe in themselves is embedded into every aspect of school life at Whitefield and teachers incorporate challenge and opportunities for self development in lessons on a daily basis to support this. However, from time to time, we understand that children can need a little more support to help them to overcome difficulties which they may be experiencing.
If your child is experiencing difficulties there are a number of things you can do:
Speak to your child’s teacher to let them know.
Have a look on the information links below; we have put together a number of different resources for you to look at and you will also find links to some fantastic websites offering advice and help.
Have a look at the ‘Learning Mentor’ section and see what help we can offer in school.
Complete the ‘Learning Mentor Support Request’ form and someone from school will contact you
If you feel you or your child needs support during the school holidays, weekends or out of school hours, you will find details of external agencies who can help under ‘information for parents and guardians’.
We can also signpost how families can get help if they are experiencing difficulties, for example, housing, food, domestic violence, difficulty in coping with a child’s behaviour, bereavement etc. Please contact a member of the pastoral support team and we will do all we can to help.
Click on the links to find out more about help that is available at Whitefield and externally.
Pastoral Support Team
At Whitefield, our pastoral support team is made up of Natalie (Learning Mentor) and Mr Chris Ginty (SENDCO). Mrs Willers works closely with the team to ensure that any child or family needing support gets the help and support they need.
The aims of pastoral support:
To ensure that our school vision ‘Healthy Hearts, Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies’ is encouraged for all children.
To support children to develop resilience, good self esteem, social skills and to help them to understand and express their emotions appropriately.
To support and maintain a nurturing environment in school where children feel safe, valued and encouraged.
To promote a growth mindset in children by encouraging children to learn from their mistakes in a positive way.
To promote well being for every child in school and to support them in learning how to reflect on their own personal well being. To help children to learn what steps they can take to improve and maintain their own well being so they are better able to cope with difficult situations.
To work with parents to help to overcome the difficulties and barriers to learning the child is facing and to reassure parents that their child will be given the appropriate support.
To make sure that there is continuity in support for the child and family by working with parents, external agencies, support staff and other schools.
The role of the Pastoral Support Team:
To support and nurture individual or small groups of children who may need a little extra support with issues such as: friendships, self esteem, confidence, bereavement, worries, anger and strong emotions.
To listen to and work with parents to support and help to overcome any difficulties and barriers to learning.
To work with staff in school to ensure support for the child and family is consistent.
To signpost families to the appropriate external agencies if further help is needed. This could be counselling for the child, family mediation support, housing advice, food banks, etc. To complete or help to complete paperwork for any referral that is made.
To work with external agencies to help them to support the child and family.
Learning Mentor
Natalie is our school Learning Mentor and is here to support children who are facing barriers to learning to ensure they are happy at school and achieve their full potential.
What Does a Learning Mentor do?
The Learning Mentor role is wide ranging but the main aim is to help all pupils of all ages and abilities to overcome barriers to learning so that they can achieve their full potential. Such barriers include, but are not limited to:
lack of motivation
lack of confidence
low self esteem
managing strong feelings
anxiety / worries
anger
friendships
difficulties at home
bereavement
difficulty settling into school
disruptive behaviour
separation anxiety
What kind of help can I expect?
Natalie will work with children either one to one or in small group sessions. Activities in the sessions will vary depending very much on the individual needs of your child. Natalie will liaise with your the class teacher, you and your child to decide how and what support can be provided.
The recommended timescale for support is usually 6 to 8 weeks. Where possible, we aim to start new sessions at the beginning of a new term, however, this is dependent on the needs of the child and Learning Mentor availability,. Sessions take place during school time, in the afternoon and usually last for 30 minutes.
At the end of the 6 to 8 week block Natalie will discuss with you, your child and the class teacher whether the intervention has had an impact. The sessions may continue or end depending on the response, however, help can be accessed again at a later date. Should we feel your child would benefit from help from a trained counsellor or other professional then we will discuss this with you and talk about the referral routes to access this help.
How do we get help?
Children can ask for help by speaking to Natalie, their teacher or another adult in school.
Teachers can ask for help if they have any concerns about a child.
Parents can ask for help by contacting the school office, speaking to their child’s class teacher or by completing the ‘Learning Mentor Support Request’ form on Parent APP
Information for parents and guardians
All parents want to know how they can help to support their child at home if they are experiencing difficulties. However, finding the right information and advice online can be difficult. We have put together a number of different websites and links to organisations who can help parents to support their child on a range of different issues. The list below is not exhaustive, please let us know if you have found any other websites helpful and we can add them to the list for other people.
CAMHS: CAMHS (Child and Adult Mental Health Services, part of the NHS) have put together a fantastic webpage where you can find a variety of different information leaflets on lots of mental health issues, such as anxiety, mindfulness, building resilience, self esteem, etc.
https://www.camhs-resources.co.uk/downloads
Bereavement: https://www.childbereavementuk.org/ and www.winstonswish.org
Serious Illness: www.winstonswish.org
Well-being support and advice for younger children: https://www.lancashiremind.org.uk/articles/245-wellbeing-for-younger-minds
Self Referral
Lancashire Mind
Lancashire Mind is a charity that is offering self referral well-being help for children to help them to identify lifestyle goals, the barriers there are to achieving them and how to overcome them. This is aimed at children aged 10 and above.
https://www.lancashiremind.org.uk/articles/278-free-wellbeing-coaching-for-children-and-young-people
Click here to see the poster
Lancashire County Council
Lancashire county council is running a series of online nurture groups. The groups are run over zoom and there are approximately 10 children per session. There are two different groups, one for ages 5 to 7 and one for ages 7 - 11. The sessions last for 6 weeks and cover:
Confidence building,
Feelings,
Stress and worry,
Positive and negative thoughts,
Self esteem
Friendships.
Please speak to the office of contact Natalie if you are interested in this for your child.