Welcome to St. Mary's Mental Health and Wellbeing page. The health and wellbeing of the St. Mary's community is at the heart of everything we do.

For urgent support, contact:

The Samaritans 

'Whatever you're going through, a Samaritan will face it with you.'

Phone 116 123 (24h/day, 365 days a year)

SHOUT

'Feeling anxious, stressed, overwhelmed or in need of support? SHOUT is the UK's first free, confidential 24/7 text support service. It's anonymous and won't appear on your bill.'

Text SHOUT to 85258 to find help via text message

We follow the guidance from the DfE for our approach to mental health and wellbeing, which can be found in our 'Downloadable Materials' section. According to this document:

The school role in supporting and promoting mental health and wellbeing can be summarised as: 

• Prevention: creating a safe and calm environment where mental health problems are less likely, improving the mental health and wellbeing of the whole school population, and equipping pupils to be resilient so that they can manage the normal stress of life effectively. This will include teaching pupils about mental wellbeing through the curriculum and reinforcing this teaching through school activities and ethos; 

• Identification: recognising emerging issues as early and accurately as possible; 

• Early support: helping pupils to access evidence based early support and interventions; and 

• Access to specialist support: working effectively with external agencies to provide swift access or referrals to specialist support and treatment.

Staff members have completed various training courses to help them support children, staff and families with their mental health. We use a relationships-based approach with our children, based on the work of Paul Dix (When the Adults Change, Everyone Changes), and all staff are trained through this approach to listen to children and respond to their needs. Staff are also trained in Team Teach, which seeks to de-escalate situations where children may become disregulated.

Mr Jones and Mrs Barrett are our Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs), Mrs Barrett is our SENDCo, overseeing the support our children receive if they have additional needs, and further training that school staff have undertaken includes:

Mental Health Champions

Mrs Read
Mrs Gorman
Miss Strange
Mrs Eckersley

Mental Health First Aiders

Mr Jones (adult)
Miss Strange (youth)

Trauma Informed Practitioners

Mr Jones
Miss Strange

Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA)

Mrs Read
Mrs Currie

Thrive Practitioners

Mrs Read 
Mrs Currie

We have a wellbeing committee which exists to respond to the needs of our school and support members of our community with their mental health. The committee is made up of the following staff members and governors:

Mrs Sheehan (Governor)

Mrs Baldwin (Governor)

Mrs Read (Pastoral Lead)

Mrs Gorman (Teaching Assistant)

Miss O'Horo (Teaching Assistant)

Mrs Tomlinson (Teacher)

Miss Strange (Teacher) 

Pupil Wellbeing Team

The Pupil Wellbeing Team are available to support other pupils with their mental health and wellbeing. They have received training from the Burnley Sports Partnership. Examples of work the team are engaged in this year are:

• delivering assemblies
• creating and monitoring worry boxes 
• supporting pupils
• gathering parent voice through surveys

We have support from Danielle, a trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner from the East Lancashire Mental Health Support Team. Danielle works with children in school and helps to facilitate the Pupil Wellbeing Team.

On this page you will find resources to help with the wellbeing of your family, as well as links to websites and charities which can offer further support.

If you have any comments or questions, or need any further support, please get in touch.

• Parent Survey