Mental Health and Wellbeing

At St Winefride’s, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils, parents and staff. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, we 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.   

We are proud to have been awarded ‘Route to Resilience’ accreditation for our commitment to wellbeing in school.   

At our school we: 

• help children to understand their emotions and feelings better                              
• help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries 
• help children socially to form and maintain relationships 
• promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they count 
• help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks  

We promote a mentally healthy environment through:  

• Promoting our school 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 

St Winefrides Mental Health Mapping Document

Signposts Of Support Document

ELSA Support: 

What is an ELSA?  

An ELSA is a specialist teaching assistant with experience of working with children. ELSAs are trained and regularly supervised by the Educational Psychologists in Leicestershire Local Education Authority. An ELSA is a person who wants to help your child feel happy in school and to reach their potential educationally.  Their aim is to remove the barriers to learning and to have happy children in school and at home.  

How will I know if my child might benefit from seeing an ELSA?  

At St Winefride’s, we recognise that unwanted behaviours are a way of communicating a message.  We would expect that, if your child is behaving in an inappropriate way at school, that this would have been communicated to you via the class teacher through all of the usual channels.    

Whilst often children can be supported through changes to the environment, rewards and responsive strategies, sometimes they would benefit from further help and this is where an ELSA can step in to work with a child.   

If teachers have trialled different strategies, they can suggest that a child may benefit from some targeted support.  They compile a referral sheet that gives information regarding the behaviour and what has already been done to support the child.   

Subsequently, Mrs Whitmore and Mrs Boyd will meet to decide if a child would benefit from ELSA support.  Targeted work usually lasts for 6-8 weeks.  We would let you know via letter if your child was going to be part of the ELSA programme.  

What can ELSAs help with?  

• Loss and bereavement  
• Self-esteem  
• Social skills  
• Emotions  
• Friendship issues  
• Relationships  
• Anger management  
• Behaviour  
• Anxiety  
• Bullying  
• Conflict  
• Relaxation techniques