Mental Health & Wellbeing at St. Cuthbert’s
Our Mental Health & Wellbeing Lead is Mrs J. Ward
At our school, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community; pupils, staff, parents and carers, and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives in just the same way as physical health.
We recognise that children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and can affect their learning and achievement.
Our role in school is to ensure that our children are able to manage times of change and stress, be resilient, are supported to reach their potential and access help when they need it. We also have a role to ensure that pupils learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects 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.
Our aim is to help develop the protective factors which build resilience to mental health problems and be a school where:
- All pupils are valued
- Pupils have a sense of belonging and feel safe
- Pupils feel able to talk openly with trusted adults about their problems without feeling any stigma
- Positive mental health is promoted and valued
Definition of mental health and wellbeing
We use the World Health Organisation’s definition of mental health and wellbeing
“ a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community”.
Mental health and wellbeing is not just the absence of mental health problems. We want all children/young people to:
- feel confident in themselves
- be able to express a range of emotions appropriately
- be able to make and maintain positive relationships with others
- cope with the stresses of everyday life
- manage times of stress and be able to deal with change
- learn and achieve
We offer and work with a number of support services including our School Counsellor, Mrs F. Cousins (who is available on Monday afternoons) as well as outside agencies such as CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) and CYPS (Children & Young People Service)
We also have a number of staff who are who hold the Mental Health First Aid Certificate
If you need any further information or would like to discuss any mental health and wellbeing issues, then please contact our Mental Health Lead- Mrs Ward – office@stcuthbertsprimaryschool.co.uk
Please visit our School Policies section to view or download our Mental Health & Well Being Policy.
Parents may also like to visit the Place2Be website which offers practical advice and tips for parents/carers of primary aged children
Mental health support for parents and carers – Place2Be
