Welfare & Wellbeing of Pupils
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
Children’s mental health and well-being is our priority at Holy Family and St Michael’s. If you have any concerns about your child’s behavior or mood, please contact school for help, advice and guidance.
Help in School
On site, Mr. Wright is our Learning Mentor. As a Learning Mentor, his key role is to champion the needs of the children who may be facing barriers to effective learning, both inside and outside the school. Working with pupils, teachers, parents, carers, families, schools and other agencies, helping to construct a flexible and responsive support network.
Our aims include:
- identifying vulnerable pupils
- setting realistic targets in order to encourage pupils to re-engage in effective learning;
- raising achievements;
- raising aspirations.
Areas within school that we particularly focus on include:
- mental health and wellbeing
- self esteem and confidence building
- social skills
- study skills
- motivation
- attendance
- punctuality
As a Learning Mentor, he negotiates and plans a support program with a pupil or group of pupils by developing a mentoring relationship aimed at sharing information and helping them to achieve their targets. Personal/social skills and positive attitudes to learning are sometimes further developed by group work.
Undertaking activities to support the development of a healthy school and community environment; some of these activities are:
- 1:1 mentoring and group work
- team building
- nurture groups
- Social Speaking
- supporting pupils through transition.
The value of positive and active involvement by parents cannot be overstated. Talk to your child about their targets and general progress and please do contact school if you have any questions. In most cases, the staff in school will identify pupils who need support, but, if you as a parent/carer have concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Catholic Care
We have a weekly visit from Catholic Care worker, Sharon Wilkes, who has a wealth of experience working with children from all backgrounds. Catholic Care offers support for children and young people who may be vulnerable for a range of reasons, and can help children to build resilience, nuture emotional development, address personal and social issues, and help children develop new attitudes, values and skills to help them through life.
For your child to access Catholic Care, parents should contact the school office for a Catholic Care Application Form. This service is available for all children, Catholics and non-Catholic.
For SEND support, please visit the full SEND area of our website.
Wakefield Support and Services
There are a range of services on offer across the Wakefield area to support children and young people.
Wakefield 0-19 Services
The Wakefield and Bradford 0-19 services can help parents, children and young people from antenatal care onwards. This includes help from midwifes, health visitors, and the school nursing team.
Better Lives, Healthy Futures is a hub of information about all different topics for children and young people aged 0-19, plus contact information for the healthcare professionals working in this service.
Star Bereavement
Bereavement can affect anyone. Star Bereavement is a specialist charity for young people aged up to 25 who are struggling to cope with grief and loss.
Based in Wakefield, Star Bereavement can offer support to young people and their family and friends in the form of 1-to-1 support, peer support, group support and text support.
WF-I-CAN
WF-I-CAN is a Wakefield support service for children and young people, and is divided into sections for under-13 and over-13 to ensure the topics are most appropriately phrased for your child.
Resources include tips on friendships and relationships, healthy eating, happiness and energy, and provides a place for children to access support directly online.
(Please note the above link directs to the under-13 area of the website.)
Wakefield CAMHS Resources
The Wakefield CAMHS Team (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) are the central mental health team for young people in Wakefield.
They have compiled a selection of resources that can be used by children, parents and carers, and education staff to help with issues such as:
- Anger
- Anxiety and health anxiety
- Phobias and OCD
- Grief
- Friendships and relationships
- Low mood
- School and education
- Mindfulness and unhelpful thoughts
Your child does not need to be under CAHMS in order to access these resources; they are available to all, free of charge.
Children First Hubs
Children First Hubs can help children and families in the local area with a range of issues. Support can be provided for families with at least two of the following:
- School attendance problems
- Have a child who needs help
- Domestic abuse
- Employment and debt problems
- Health problems
- Crime and Anti-social behaviour problems
Please visit the website to find your local hub, and how to contact them.
Wakefield Mental Health Helplines
In Wakefield 24/7 open access to our mental health services:
Adults (aged 18+) – 01924 316900
Children and young people (CAMHS) – 01977 735865
People with a learning disability – 01977 465435
Children’s Mental Health Week
Our school took part in this year’s Children’s Mental Health week, held in February.
In school, we took part in the National Assembly by Place2Be, where we learnt about how to help ourselves and others. The children in school then worked on identifying what made them stars and which people would be in their support balloon.
Photos
We are encouraging parents and carers to spend as much time outdoors – whether in a garden, park, local woodland or other areas – to help their children reconnect with the great outdoors, and improve their mental health and resilience in the process.
A study conducted by The Wildlife Trust and University College London in November 2019, found that after taking part in Wildlife Trust-led activities, school aged children experienced the following:
- 84% reported that they felt they were capable of doing new things when they tried
- 79% felt more confident in themselves
- 81% agreed that they had an improved relationship with their class teacher
- 79% said they had an improved relationship with their classmates.
We have uploaded a number of resources here for you to take part in at home – not just in Mental Health Awareness Week, but as often as you can throughout the year.