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At Hempstalls Primary School, we are committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of our children and staff to ensure that the school is a community where everyone feels able to thrive. Positive mental wellbeing is essential if children are to flourish and lead fulfilling lives.
At our school, we know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.
Our role in school is to ensure that children are able to manage times of change and stress, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access help when they need it. Children are taught when to seek help, what help is available, and the likely outcome of seeking support so that they have the confidence and knowledge for themselves or others. We also have a role to ensure that children learn about what they can do to maintain positive mental health, what affects their mental health and how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues. As part of our targeted provision, we have and continue to access, outside help and support for pupils when required.
At Hempstalls, we believe that teaching about mental health and emotional wellbeing as part of a comprehensive PSHE (Personal, social, health and economic education) curriculum is vital. PSHE is central to the curriculum across the whole school and assists children to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world, manage transitions and enables them to make an active contribution to their communities. The concepts covered in PSHE include keeping safe and managing risk, identity, equality, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, mental, emotional and social well-being. We aim to promote children’s wellbeing through an understanding of their own and others’ emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies.
Meet the Team
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Mrs Hemmings
Deputy Head Teacher
Senior Mental Health Lead
Mental Health Aware
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Mrs Kirkham
Home/School Support & Wellbeing Officer
ELSA Practitioner
Drawing & Talking Practitioner
Youth Mental Health First Aider
Nurture
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Nicola Beresford
Just Family
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Barney & Cathy
Therapy Dog
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Mrs Armstrong
Youth Mental Health First Aider
Nurture (The Lighthouse Club)
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Mrs Davis
Youth Mental Health First Aider
Nurture (The Lighthouse Club)
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Nurture Room
We are very lucky to have such a special, safe place in our school to be able to respond to a child’s long or short term needs to ensure they are feeling happy, secure which, in turn, allows the children the opportunity to freely express themselves and share their worries and concerns.
 
Wellbeing Support
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Weekly PSHE Jigsaw sessions
Jigsaw is a whole-school approach that aims is to support children to feel a strong sense of belonging and community. It is a carefully thought-through progressive programme which perfectly connects the pieces of Personal, Social, Health and Well-Being Education.
The programme teaches children emotional literacy, social - and lifelong skills, RSE and resilience in an age-appropriate manner. The programme equips them for happier and healthier lives, giving them agency to make their way through the world.
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Autumn Term
Being Me in My World
Who am I and how do I fit?'
Celebrating Differences
Respect for similarity and difference.
Anti-bullying and being unique
Spring Term
Dreams and Goals
Aspirations, how to achieve goals and understanding the emotions that go with this
Healthy Me
Being and keeping safe and healthy
Summer Term
Relationships
Building positive, healthy relationships
Changing Me
Coping positively with change
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Relationships without Fear Programme - Delivered by Glow
- KS1 Assembly
- KS2 Assembly
- Year 6 - 6 week workshop sessions
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Lighthouse Nurture Club - Parental consent needed
- Weekly small group sessions lead by school-based staff. Boxall Profiles are completed for each child to identify needs.
- Sessions are bespoke to children’s needs.
- Attendance to this club is reviewed termly.
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NSPCC Assemblies:
These assemblies support children to feel empowered - knowing how they can speak out and stay safe. With the help of our mascot, Buddy the speech bubble, children will know they have the right to:
- Speak out and be heard
- Be safe
- Get help when they need it.
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North Staffs Mind workshops:
The aim of our workshops is to improve young people's understanding of emotional wellbeing and mental health and to know where and how to access support.
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ELSA Programme
The ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) intervention is designed to support the emotional needs of children. This is achieved by training teaching assistants to develop and deliver individualised support programmes to meet the emotional needs of children in their care.
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Therapy Dog Sessions - Barney and Cathy
Therapy dogs, which are called "comfort dogs” sometimes, support a child’s mental health by providing attention and comfort. Their sweet unconditional love may have a therapeutic benefit to those who face challenges. Unlike assistance dogs, however, anyone can get help from a therapy dog.
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Drawing and Talking Therapy
Drawing and Talking allows individuals to discover and communicate emotions through a non-directed technique, setting it apart from existing solution-focused and cognitive-based therapies and interventions.
Drawing and Talking Therapy is designed to complement CAMHs and other specialist therapies.
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Just Family Support
Just Family CIC vision is for every family to live happy, healthy lives with positive relationships and a chance to reach their potential.
Therefore, Just Family CIC has made it their mission to provide a range of quality support services, including peer support groups, parental workshops, 1-1 tailored support, advocacy, mentorship, signposting and accredited interventions.
The whole family approach ensures all our interventions are tailored to meet the needs of each individual family member. This means involving and supporting partners and other family members in specialist perinatal mental health services, and following guidance from NHS England.
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Early help
Staffordshire’s Early Help Strategy aims to:
- Establish a common understanding of early help and help ensure everyone can see how their contribution can make a difference to the lives of children, young people and families living in Staffordshire.
- Provide targeted Early Help services to address the assessed needs of a child and their family which focuses on activities to significantly improve the outcomes for the child.
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Action for children
Action for Children aim to protect and support children and young people, providing practical and emotional care and support. We ensure their voices are heard, and campaign to bring lasting improvements to their lives.
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Family action
Provider of emotional, practical and financial support to help children, young people and their families, through a programme of:
- Referral Based Family Support.
- Targeted Outreach Visits.
- Support to access community support, groups, universal offers and entitlements.
- Building strong relationships with families is important to us - in family hubs, in the community and within the family home. We strive to promote stable, positive family networks in which all family members can thrive.
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CAMHs
CAMHs help with lots of different emotional and psychological difficulties. We have a range of professionals who work in CAMHs, such as:
- Occupational Therapists
- Psychologists
- Doctors (known as Psychiatrists)
- Art Therapists
- Nurses
- Youth Workers
They also have Family Therapists who may offer some sessions with you and your family, to help you all understand each others experiences in a more helpful way.
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