Mental Health and Well Being


Promoting children and young people’s wellbeing is a key part of keeping them safe, helping them develop and ensuring they have positive outcomes into adulthood (Public Health England, 2021).

Mental health plays a key role in a child’s overall wellbeing and can be affected by various factors, including:

  •          environment
  •          stress
  •          family circumstances
  •          abuse and neglect.

Negative experiences can adversely affect a child’s mental health, just as positive experiences can help improve it.

Social and emotional skills are the skills that help children and young people develop their resilience and manage their thoughts, feelings and behaviour. They are important life skills that support pupils’ ability to cope with and negotiate their way through difficult situations, as well as build positive relationships with their peers and adults.

These skills can improve academic attainment and enhance pupils’ motivation, as well as promote wellbeing and help prevent mental health difficulties from developing.

We know that school can play a pivotal role in building the strong emotional foundations that all of us need in order to thrive and be mentally healthy.

 

Social and emotional skills help children and young people to:

  •          identify and manage their feelings and their behaviour, and reach out for help where necessary
  •          build and manage healthy relationships
  •          have self-control
  •          resolve conflict
  •          be self-aware
  •          handle and overcome difficulties
  •          make good decisions
  •          build resilience, self-esteem and confidence
  •          think positively about themselves and how they perceive the world around them
  •          recognise and prevent poor mental health
  •          grow into well-rounded and healthy adults.

 

All of our pupils at Drumbeat have access to social, emotional and mental health outcomes as part of the curriculum they follow, in order to support and develop their individual needs. Under the non-core area of “My Health and Wellbeing”, many strategies are used to support this, including but not limited to ‘The Zones of Regulation”, “Superflex”, sensory processing times, movement breaks, physical activity sessions, learning outside the classroom sessions, specified and focused intervention sessions, Social Stories, Comic-Strip Conversations, School Council and Debate Clubs, including support via our Speech and Language therapists, Occupational therapists as well as clinical psychologist and other external referrals, including paediatric support as well as CAMHS. Parental workshops are also scheduled in during the year to support parent and caregivers with specific issues they may be experiencing at home with their child, supported by our Senior Leadership Team, therapists as well as Family Liaison Officer.

 

 

At Drumbeat, we also have trained Mental Health First Aiders at both our Downham and Brockley sites, who are available to support staff, so that they feel supported in their role to support all pupils.

 

This is part of our all-round-dedicated approach to supporting mental health and wellbeing at Drumbeat; to both pupils as well as staff.

 

 

(Also see sections related to Safeguarding, Psychological and Counselling Service and My Health and Wellbeing)