Well Being
Emotional Health and Mental Well Being at St Augustine’s
Over the course of their education, children spend over 7,800 hours at school. With such a huge amount of time spent in the classroom, schools provide an ideal environment for promoting good emotional wellbeing and identifying early behaviour changes and signs of mental distress. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom can help them to build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their mental health throughout their lives. Emotional wellbeing is a clear indicator of academic achievement, success and satisfaction in later life. Evidence shows that mental health and wellbeing programmes in schools, can lead to significant improvements in children’s mental health, and social and emotional skills. Wellbeing provision in schools can also lead to reductions in classroom misbehaviour and bullying
At St Augustine’s we take emotional health and mental well being very seriously. St Augustine’s is now registered with Mentally Healthy Schools to access a wide range of useful resources and materials to support good mental health for both pupils and staff.
Every class provides a wide range of activities that promote emotional health and mental well-being including the daily mile, Worry Monster's/Boxes, class and team building activities. Every week we have two phase assemblies which look at aspects of our Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural place in our community and the wider world and the Personal, Social & Health Education of our children. In the Autumn and Summer terms, we devote a 5 week block of lessons about topics which are agreed with our Mental Health & Wellbeing Council and in the Spring term we hold a Mental Health & Wellbeing week.
Hertfordshire’s Local Offer for Mental Health & Wellbeing
The Local Offer lets parents and young people know what special educational needs and disabilities services are available in Hertfordshire, and who can access them. On their website you can find a range of information about supporting children with their education and services for children and young people (0-25 years).
In accordance with the Children and Families Act 2014, Hertfordshire’s Quality SEND Offer describes the special educational provision that families can expect to be available for children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Quality Offer exemplifies what the evidence says works well for children and young people with SEMH difficulties. It supports schools to develop whole school approaches, build staff confidence, strengthen partnerships with parents and improve outcomes.
The full document can be found at by clicking the image:
It's normal and entirely understandable if you're feeling overwhelmed frustrated, worried or exhausted about the situation. You might be finding it harder than ever at the moment to know how to best look after your child’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as your own. If you’re struggling, you are not alone. Here are some resources that can really help. Please click on the picture to access the resources.
When should I worry? Resources for parents
Children and young people can experience a wide range of social, emotional and mental health difficulties that may result in them struggling to engage with learning and have difficulty building and maintaining relationships with peers and adults. Behaviours that can indicate an SEMH need include:
- rapid mood changes such as sadness and anger
- emotional outbursts, challenging behaviour, disruption or hyperactivity withdrawal or isolation from others
- intense feelings such as worry, anxiousness or fear
- dramatic changes in behaviour or personality
- difficulty concentrating
- unexplained weight loss
- physical harm to themselves
- fighting and wanting to hurt others
More information about whether you should be worried about your child can be found on the NHS website:
Looking after a child or young person’s mental health MindEd for families booklet “Should I be worried?” Click on the picture below:
Government Resources
Wellbeing Resources
- Class Clips KS1 - Emotional wellbeing
- Class Clips KS2 - Emotional Wellbeing
- Smiling Mind - Modern Meditation for young people age 7 years and up
- Mindful Gnats - Mindfulness and relaxation skills
External Agencies
- Anna Freud Organisation - National Centre for Children and Families
- MIND Charity
- Young Minds Charity
- MH awareness week primary St Augustines 2024
Our School Support Team
We are lucky that in additional to our SenCo (Mrs Johnson), we have the help of our School Counsellor and the MHST team who have joined our staff to support children who are experiencing a range of emotional and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. In addition, we run a Nurture Group on a weekly basis which covers children from Reception to Year 6. We are so fortunate to have this wonderful support being provided in our school.
We have set up a school Mental Health & Wellbeing Council that all children will be invited to join. The aim of a Wellbeing Ambassador will be to spread joy, lift people’s spirits and be there for anyone in their time of need. They will work to ensure that everyone in the school family knows about the 5 ways to Wellbeing: this term we will be working on the how to Connect to people around us, in our school, family and wider community
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