The wellbeing of our children (and staff!) is of the highest priority at Urmston Primary. Much of this is achieved through a culture which is kind, caring and considerate and founded on our school values of kindness, happiness, pride, respect, responsibility and resilience. Our children and staff know that the behaviour of everyone in our school community is based upon taking responsibility for our actions and showing kindness and respect to all, recognising when we make mistakes that affect others, and working together to put them right. All of our staff relate to our children using the PLACE approach, where we show playfulness, love, acceptance, curiosity and empathy in supporting our children with their own relationships, the feelings and helping them to be ready to learn with a positive mindset. More on the PLACE approach and our culture at UPS can be found in our Relational Behaviour and Regulation Policy on the policies page.
Alongside this culture, we have procedures in place to support those children who may need a little extra guidance and nurturing. All staff play an important role in pastoral care, with our HLTAs, Mrs Ball (our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant - ELSA) and Mrs Walker (our Inclusion Practitioner), providing more focused support for our children and talking to them about their anxieties and helping them to be calm. Both have strong knowledge and understanding of their roles and have completed training on listening and counselling skills, mental health awareness, child bereavement and lego therapy, are qualified drawing and talking therapists…and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Our Mental Health Lead is Mrs Billingsley, also on our SLT, who, along with other senior leaders, provides support and a listening ear for staff. Happy staff = happy children!
We have close links with Early Help hub workers and regularly provide information to our parents on what the local Early Help offer has to support where needed.
We also have termly wellbeing forums, parent partnership meetings, and SEND meetings and drop ins for our parents with the aim to ensure we maintain a communicative and collaborative school community that supports our children and their families and helps to nurture resilience.
Wellbeing contacts
Furthermore, if you'd like support regarding your child managing their emotions, Childline's Calmzone website has some excellent ideas and resources. The link is here: https://www.childline.org.uk/
We hold wellbeing forums every term where staff, parents and governors are invited and this provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our practice and how we can maintain and improve our culture of happy children and happy staff.
