Becontree Primary School
Respecting One Another
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Health and Well-Being
Meet the Health and Well-Being Team
Ms Reilly leads the team as our Senior Mental Health Practitioner. Other members of the team are Youth Mental Health First Aiders. They attended a two-day course which taught in-depth skills for providing first aid to people who may be experiencing mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and psychosis.
Being a Youth Mental First Aider does not provide a person with the knowledge and skills to be a therapist. However, it does provide the first aider to recognise the symptoms of mental health issues, provide initial help and enable a young person to access appropriate professional help.
Ms Lewis runs interventions that focus on developing children's social, emotional and mental health skills. The interventions include Lego Therapy, mentoring and self-esteem programmes, e.g Dove Project and Time to Talk. Ms Lewis also runs a Nurture Provision for those children who require additional support to help develop their social and emotional skills. She encourages language skills, turn taking and listening skills.
Our Mental Health and Well-Being Vision
Our shared vision is 'A special place where children know how to keep themselves safe and healthy.' In order to achieve this, we support the emotional health and wellbeing of our children, staff and families. We have a supporting and caring ethos of 'respecting one another', where each individual is valued.
We know that everyone experiences life challenged that can make us vulnerable at times, anyone may need additional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everyone's responsibility and that we all have a role to play.
We promote a positive mental health environment through: -
- promoting our school shared values and encouraging a sense of belonging
- promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision making
- celebrating academic and non-academic achievements
- providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
- providing opportunities to reflect
- access to appropriate support that meets their needs.
Promotion of positive mental well-being
We offer the children many opportunities to do physical and relaxing activities to promote positive well-being:
- games and activities for children to access during break and lunchtimes
- offering lunchtimes clubs run by year 6 children
- home learning projects
- family well-being challenges (see below for more information)
- themed or charity days
- summer and Christmas fetes
- residential visits for year 6 children
- magic moments and Becontree top 20 enrichment activities
- after school clubs
Becontree's Five Ways to Well-Being
We understand the importance of ensuring that families look after their own well-being. Therefore, we have our Becontree Five Ways to Well-Being.
Research suggests that trying the Five ways can improve positive mental health and wellbeing. Although not intended to be ‘quick fixes’, the suggestions below could help you to nurture your own wellbeing and the wellbeing of your family.
We have amended some of the international five areas to reinforce what we promote as a school. Our Five Ways to Well-being are:
1. Connect with others
Happy and positive relationships are important for your mental wellbeing. They can help build a sense of belonging and self-worth, give you an opportunity to share positive experiences and provide emotional support and allow you to support others.
2. Learn a new skill
Learning new skills can improve your mental wellbeing by boosting your confidence and self-esteem, helping you to build a sense of purpose and achievement and possibly helping you to connect with others with the same interests.
3. Be physically active
Being active is not only great for your physical health and fitness, but evidence also shows that it can really improve your mental health and wellbeing by raising your self-esteem and helping you to set goals and feel motivated to achieve them. It also causes chemical changes in your brain which can help to positively change your mood.
4. Respect
Receiving respect from others is important because it helps us to feel safe and to express ourselves. Being respected by important people in our lives teaches us how to be respectful toward others. Respect in relationships builds feelings of trust, safety, and wellbeing.
5. Kindness
Acts of kindness can help reduce stress, brings a fresh perspective and deepens friendships. Kindness can help boost our self-esteem. Kindness can even improve feelings of confidence and optimism.
Class suggestions for each Becontree Way
Mental Health Concerns
We value the support of parents by working in partnership to support your child. If you have a concern regarding your child's mental health, you are most welcome to discuss this with a member of the team or Ms Reilly (school SENDCo).
If you have concerns regarding your own mental health, then please discuss this with Ms Moldrich (Parent Support Advisor) who can signpost you to support agencies.
Youth Mental Heath Day- Yellow Day 2021
Youth Mental Health Day (YMHD) is an awareness day founded by leading young persons mental health charity stem4.
YMHD encourages understanding and awareness of mental health in young people, enabling them to live happy and healthy lives all year round. Each year, the day aims to get young people, and those who support them, talking about how to improve mental health.
This years’ YMHD theme is ‘Stride Forward.’ From cancelled exams to school, college and university disruptions, the past year has seen countless decisions made on behalf of young people, without their input. Placing young voices front and centre of the conversation once more, YMHD 2021 will invite young people across the country to reflect on how the last year has impacted their lives and share how they will #StrideForward and move towards positive mental health.
To raise awareness, on the 10th of September, we wore something yellow and produced pieces of work to show our understanding of the theme #StriveForward.
Have a look at some of our amazing work and our yellow clothing.
Welcome to our Healthy Schools page.
Becontree Primary School holds the Bronze Healthy Schools Award. This is an awards programme set up by Healthy Schools London. This programme aims to assess how well schools prepare children towards leading healthy lifestyles- making the right food choices and staying active.
Our Healthy Schools Co-ordinator is Mrs C Stock
