Westminster CE Primary Academy offers a happy, safe and caring environment. We have a unique family atmosphere where each child is valued as an individual. We encourage a love of learning and promote a child’s natural curiosity through varying challenges, experiences and opportunities. As a church school, we develop a knowledge and understanding of Christianity and foster a respect for other people and their beliefs.

The mental health and well-being of our children and staff is vitally important. To help ensure we can recognise signs that mental health is not as positive as we are aiming for in order to provide early support, we have mental health first aiders in school, for children and adults. Our policies are written with regard for the positive mental health of everyone who is part of our school. We are striving to ensure all staff are trained in mental health awareness and to embed the skills children (and adults) need to flourish into our school curriculum. We recognise the importance of relationships in school in helping to support children and adults maintain a positive mental health.

Definition of mental health

‘Children and young people feeling good, feeling that their life is going well and feeling able to get on with their daily lives’ (Public Health England Young Advisors, 2016).

‘Emotional health and wellbeing is the emotional resilience that enables us to enjoy life and to survive pain, suffering and disappointment. It is a positive sense of wellbeing and an underlying belief in our own worth and of others. Emotional health and wellbeing is embedded in social relations built upon social skills that are developed from birth.’ (Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, 2001)

We have a number of books linked to aspects of maintaining positive mental health and engage in a range of lessons within class or in small groups. Sometimes children have individual personalised sessions too. We also liaise with a number of outside agencies to support our children.

The Mental Health Lead for staff is Mrs Claire Stephenson.

There are 6 other Mental Health First Aiders for children in school.