Wellbeing

Welcome to Wellbeing!

At Forest Gate Academy, children’s wellbeing is our priority. This page is dedicated to well-being, with a focus on mental health. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through to adulthood.

How to use this page

On this page you will find information about how we support children’s wellbeing at FGA. There is also a growing selection of links to wonderful websites with tips and advice on how to best support your child’s wellbeing. You will also find some resources that may be particularly helpful to support your child at home.

If you have serious concerns about your child’s mental health, please seek urgent support. The following link will direct you in how to get the best support.

Urgent support – Every Mind Matters – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

How do we support children’s wellbeing at FGA?

Wellbeing Council

At FGA we have a Wellbeing Champion for each year group. These children meet with Miss Stead,  Behaviour and PSHE Lead, to share ideas on how to improve children’s wellbeing at school and home. We also have a Parent Wellbeing Champion, who acts as a link between the school and parent/carer community.

PSHE lessons

Our PSHE curriculum include two main strands; relationships and mental wellbeing. Relationships is broken down in to the following topics:

• Families and people who care for me
• Respectful Relationships

(including online)

• Being Safe
• Physical health and fitness
• These topics are each taught as a unit, but they can be taught in any order across the year, allowing our staff to tailor the curriculum to best fit the children.At least one objective from our mental wellbeing strand is taught explicitly per topic.

Circle Time

Each PSHE lesson starts with a Circle Time. This enables each child to share their thoughts and feelings in a safe space. The topic may be linked to a current affair, or it may address a recent appropriate social/emotional issue that has arisen in the class. This ensures there is at least a weekly opportunity to address larger issues as a class in more depth.

Calm Corner

Each classroom has a “safe space” that children can spend time in if they are feeling upset, worried or angry. We are also developing a larger “pastoral room” to provide extra space for children who require further support throughout the school day.

Interventions

Staff identify children that might require further support with their wellbeing and design targeted interventions to carry out with them. In some cases, this might form part of a Social, Emotional and Mental Health target on a child’s Additional Need Plan.

Assemblies

A weekly assembly promotes the school value or British value of the week. These are designed to support children in their understanding of tools such as “resilience” or “compassion” and encourage and explain to them how to display that value in school and at home.

Celebrating successes

Our Friday assembly celebrates particular successes children have experienced over the past week, promoting positivity, growth and pride in children’s achievements.

Clear Behaviour System

Our behaviour system includes clear rewards and consequences and is reinforced with a display in each classroom. This enables a consistent approach to help children feel safe and sure of what is expected of them.

Outdoor Learning and enrichments

We have a school garden, trim trail, woodland area, astro turf, playgrounds and a MUGA to ensure children have space to get fresh air and are able to take their learning outside. We also offer a variety of clubs to nurture children’s interest outside of academia.

Events

Throughout the school year, we raise awareness of the importance of wellbeing through various events. These include:

• Anti-bullying Week
• Road Safety Week
• Children’s Mental Health Week
• Health and Wellbeing Festival
• Healthy Eating Week
• Sports Day

The Hive

We send out a monthly magazine to our local community which includes a page dedicated to mental health. This always includes a link to a useful website for parents/carers and/or children and information on how the school has been promoting and exploring wellbeing that month. There is also a page dedicated to physical fitness.

Useful Links

www.childline.org.uk/kids – lots of resources for your child to explore in order to help them talk about and understand mental health.

Children’s mental health – Every Mind Matters – NHS (www.nhs.uk) – NHS website offering advice to parents and carers in supporting children’s mental health.

inourplace.co.uk – a range online courses for parents and carers.

If you have serious concerns about your child’s mental health, please seek urgent support. The following link will direct you in how to get the best support.

Urgent support – Every Mind Matters – NHS (www.nhs.uk)