Mental Health & Well Being

Mental Health & Well being is at the forefront of our school’s vision and we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our school community. We have a Mental Health Lead who works alongside the WEB team (Well Being & Behaviour) that consists of a Behaviour Lead and our school SENCo

“Mental health is a state of wellbeing 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.”

(World Health Organisation 2014)

The Department of Education (DFE) recognises that “In order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy.”  Schools can be a place for children to experience a nurturing and supportive environment that has the potential to develop self-esteem and give positive experiences for overcoming adversity and building resilience. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. 

Wellbeing in Mind Team

The Reflection Room

The Reflection room is a space where children can come for some reflection time or a moment of calm on a busy day. It is also an area where individual or small group work can take place with our experienced WEB team, or from external agencies.

Emotion Coaching

At Haxby Road we use Emotion Coaching. We use this in our day to day interactions with children because it:

• Helps children to understand the different emotions they experience, why they occur and how to handle them.
• Helps children to feel safe, seen, appreciated, cared for, soothed and secure.
• Is very powerful in building relationships with our children.

Zones of Regulation

The ‘Zones of Regulation’ help children sort their emotions into four easy colour coded zones. Red, green, blue and yellow. Feelings are complicated. They come in different sizes, intensities, and levels of energy that are unique within our brains and bodies. To make them easier to talk about, think about, and regulate, The Zones of Regulation organises our feelings, states of alertness, and energy levels into four coloured Zones .We use this every single day as a means of ‘checking in’ with our children. This is fluid through the day and allows staff to recognise and help support children in how they are feeling. It gives our children a voice and allows us to work in a very solution focussed manner detaching any feelings of guilt children may have about feeling a certain way.

Power to Be

This is our whole school approach to how we speak to children who may be in ‘crisis’. We believe that in order to support our children it is key that we take a relational approach so we can really unpick what is happening and understand how best we can support them.

Wellness Plans

All children receiving a 1:1 intervention will have a ‘Wellness plan’ written with them. This document allows all staff working with the child to have a deeper understanding of how best to support the child. These are used alongside a model called Dyadic Developmental Practice. DDP helps the child develop as much attachment security as is possible through consistent and attuned relationships with their trusted adults, it also enables them to have new relationship experiences.

Thresholds of need guidance