Mental Health and Wellbeing at Queen Margaret Primary School 

Mental health and well being is not just about accessing specific mental health services, it is about how we think and feel about our lives and ourselves. Looking after your wellbeing is key to how we manage and deal with us and downs throughout our lives. At Queen Margaret, we recognise that children and young people need help to understand and enjoy good mental health and wellbeing and are committed to supporting the Mental Health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff and Governors. We understand and appreciate that everyone, at some point, will experience life challenges that may leave us feeling vulnerable and needing additional emotional support.

Queen Margaret has achieved the Mental Health Champion Award and endeavours to ensure that everyone understands and enjoys good emotional health and wellbeing. As a school community, we want everyone to develop and build the self-esteem and resilience to deal with the emotions and daily problems that can arise. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and strive to ensure that all our children, staff and governors are equipped with both the experiences and confidence to cope and thrive in a modern Britain.

Need support or advice? Explore the specific pages dedicated to mental Health and Wellbeing to find out more about what we do and how you can access ideas and support for both yourself and your children.

What we offer;

Universal Support- designed to meet the needs of all pupils at Queen Margaret, we offer support through our overall ethos and our wider curriculum. Eg. in PSHE lessons, Physical Education and school trips.

Additional support- For those who may have short-term needs at Queen Margaret who may have been made vulnerable by life experiences such as bereavement we offer ELSA support and Thera build as well as sessions with our pastoral Support Worker.  

Targeted support- For pupils who need more differentiated support and resources or specific targeted interventions such as wellbeing groups , ELSA support, Thera build We are part of the Young Minds matter programme whereby we are able t refer our pupils to services that provide bespoke support.

At our school we:

· help children to understand their emotions and feelings from pre-school upwards

· help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries

· help children socially to form and maintain relationships

· promote self-esteem to ensure children know that they are important and can be the best that they can be

· help children to develop emotional resilience to manage setbacks

· promote the Five Ways to Wellbeing within our curriculum

· give children an understanding of mental health

· offer after school clubs such as cross country, art, dance and singing

· offer Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) to the children if needed　

· have a school dog

·  offer targeted support to selected children such as Thera build

Young Minds Matter/Trailblazers Programme 

At Queen Margaret Primary School we are delighted that our school has been given the opportunity to take part in a new , national programme to help make mental health support to children and young people more available when needed.

We are one of the many Gloucestershire schools who are working alongside NHS Gloucestershire to introduce this support into schools under the umbrella of Young Minds Matter.

A Mental Health Support Team (MHST) led by a Senior Education Mental health Practitioner , will visit school to help identify children in need to provide support at the earliest opportunity.  This may involve group work, and /or individual one to one support over a period of several weeks.  

The areas that may ne identified include: anxiety, friendship difficulties, challenging behaviour  or low mood.

You can find out more about the programme from Mrs Bennion or Mrs Kelly.