Health and Well-Being

This team are all 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.

Miss Lewis runs interventions that focus on developing children's social, emotional and mental health skills. The interventions include Lego therapy, mentoring, art therapy and self-esteem programmes, e.g Dove Project, Lego Therapy. 

Miss 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

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.

How will these be promoted? 

At the end of each term, we will be promoting a well-being challenge that families can participate in during the holidays. We will provide suggestions of how you can meet the chosen area on our website.

What do we need to do as a family? 

We would like you to take photographs and, or videos, of you and your family taking part in the activities and email them to:

FiveWaysToWell-Being@becontreeprimaryschool.com

To congratulate you on meeting an area, you and your family will receive a certificate and a rosette.

In your email we also need the following information:

• Name and year group of your child or children
• If possible, a short message explaining what you family are doing in the photographs or videos.
• Consent to your photographs being on our website.

Autumn theme:

Here are some suggestions you can do as a family: 

Remember please send you photographs/videos etc to the email address by the start of the next term. 

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.          

In September 2018, Becontree signed up to 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 Mr Hack.

Since signing up, we have applied for the bronze award. We continue to work towards making sure that  pupils have the best and healthiest start in life. 

Update: 

In May 2019, we received the Bronze Healthy Schools Award. We are now working towards the Silver Award.

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. 

Useful links