Wellbeing and pastoral support

At Peartree Spring Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our children and staff.

We have a supportive and caring ethos and our approach is to establish a school culture where everyone is respected and all are deeply valued.

We aim to teach our children about the importance of both their physical and emotional wellbeing through different subjects in the curriculum and in whole school assemblies.

We aim to develop understanding of their personal responsibility towards themselves and others so that they flourish as individuals within the community. Our goal is to ensure that our children feel safe and know how to ask for help.

At our school, we know that everyone experiences life challenges that make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that mental wellbeing is everyone’s business and that we all have a role to play.

At Peartree Spring Primary School, we have a pastoral team that are able to support children and their families which may be in need of individualised programmes. We work alongside other professionals to provided the best support packages for the more challenging times our families might be facing.

Family Liaison Workers 

Family Liaison Workers and the pastoral team use a range of interventions and resources when supporting pupils.

Their role is to provide support to service users, empowering them to address various challenges, reducing problems and risks.

The school’s Family Liaison Workers can support either parents or children with a range of social and personal issues, including domestic abuse, bereavement or homelessness.

Supporting Children

Family Liaison Workers use a range of interventions and resources when supporting pupils such as:

Emotional Literacy – This is a 6-12 week programme which is tailored to a child’s individual needs and can start with the development of emotional vocabulary in order to help children understand and appreciate their feelings and those of others. This includes reflection about how our behaviours can impact on others and also looks at supporting children to articulate how they are feeling. ELSAs will also help children and young people to find their own solutions and strategies to help them with any problems they might have in the future. Some areas the ELSA intervention might be used:

• Loss and bereavement
• Emotional Literacy
• Self-esteem
• Social Skills
• Friendship issues
• Relationships
• Managing strong feelings
• Anxiety and worries
• Conflict
• Emotional Regulation
• Growth Mindset
• Problem solving

Sibs talk – This is a one to one intervention designed by the UK charity Sibs to help schools support siblings in Key Stage 2. The purpose is to improve siblings wellbeing and engagement with their learning. It also provides the child with an opportunity to acknowledge their thoughts and feelings around their lives and of those of their sibling. The activities aim to:

• Normalise their experiences that other siblings have growing up in their families.
• Teach siblings coping strategies for dealing with difficult situations.
• Enable schools to make positive changes that enhance siblings school life.

Youth Mental Health First Aiders – Our Youth Mental Health First Aiders have been trained by Mental Health England to support young people aged between  8-18. They are trained to spot the signs of mental health crisis and issues in a young person, offer first aid and guide them and their families towards the support they might need. They are not Mental Health therapists, but can listen, reassure and respond, even in a crisis – and even potentially stop a crisis from happening. The training includes:

• An in-depth understanding of young people’s mental health and factors that affect wellbeing
• Practical skills to spot the triggers and signs of mental health issues
• Confidence to reassure and support a young person in distress
• Enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
• Knowledge to help a young person recover their health by guiding them to further support and to engage with parents, carers and external agencies where appropriate
• Ability to support a young person with a long term mental health issue or disability to thrive

My Time – This is a 6-12 week pro-social programme where play is led by a child in order to boost their self-esteem and communication skills. This also gives children the opportunity to build on positive relationships with adults who often have difficulty identifying troubling feelings such as anger, fear and anxiety

Protective Behaviours – This is a 6-8 week programme. It is a safety awareness programme which focuses on resilience and helping children to recognise any situations where they may feel worried or unsafe. It explores practical ways to stay safe emotionally and physically.

Starving the Anger Gremlin – This imaginative workbook shows young people how to starve their anger gremlin and control their anger effectively. Made up of engaging and fun activities, it helps them to understand why they get angry and how their anger affects themselves and others, and teaches them how to manage angry thoughts and behaviours.

Starving the Anxiety Gremlin – This imaginative workbook shows young people how to starve their anger gremlin and control their anger effectively. This intervention is based on cognitive behavioural principles and uses fun and engaging activities. It helps children to understand why they get angry and how their anger affects themselves and others, and teaches them how to manage angry thoughts and behaviours.

What to Do When Your Temper Flares – Helps guide children through the cognitive-behavioural techniques used to help children with their anger. Engaging examples, lively illustrations, and step-by-step instructions to teach children a set of “anger dousing” methods aimed at cooling angry thoughts and controlling angry actions, resulting in a calmer mood.

What to Do When You Worry Too Much- is an interactive self-help book designed to guide children through the cognitive-behavioural techniques most often used to support children with anxiety, worries and help build on their self-esteem. This intervention is engaging, encouraging and easy to follow using a story and drawing activity after each section this book educates, motivates, and empowers children to work towards change.

Homunculi – The Homunculi Approach is a Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for children and young people on the Autism spectrum or with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The approach aims to build social and emotional resilience in children and young people, especially for those with high functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome who often have difficulty identifying troubling feelings such as anger, fear and anxiety.

As part of the Homunculi approach a child/young person is asked to invent their own Homunculi characters (agents) and stories. These Homunculi agents are used to help the child/young person tell a problem solving story in which the agents help out with real-life distressing thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The activity of storytelling helps the child/young person to learn to cope with social problems.