Mental Health & Well-being

Our children’s well-being and mental health has and will always be central to everything we do here at Woodcote and we are thrilled that this has been recognised with a national award. We are incredibly proud to have been awarded the School Mental Heath Bronze Award last year, which recognises that we work extremely hard as a school to support the mental health and well-being of our children, our families and our staff.

Woodcote Primary provides a wide range of activities to boost the wellbeing of pupils and staff, including providing ELSA (Emotional Literacy) support for those who might need it and offered an extensive programme of wellbeing activities throughout these Covid times such as giving every child in school a birthday party when Covid restrictions were in place, yoga sessions, mindfulness etc. We work very closely with outside agencies to improve our mental health support for our pupils, parents and staff and all staff have undertaken mental health training. We also have a social and emotional mental health hub attached to our school and can share staff expertise across the school. 

The school has signpost information to help point parents in the right direction to gain further support for their children and themselves.  The school also follow the Route2Resilience teaching and learning programme, hoping to develop children’s ability to persevere when things get tough.

The award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead.

The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances.

Doctor Steve Burton, Interim Dean of Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education, said: “Achieving this award is not just recognition of a whole-school approach to mental health, it’s a recognition of the school’s commitment to improving the life chances of children and engaging with the wider community including staff and parents/carers. We’re truly proud to have worked with Woodcote Primary in this vital work and look forward to further collaboration.”

Nationally, more than 1000 schools have signed up to take part in the mental health award.

Dean Johnstone, founder and CEO of Minds Ahead said: “This award shines a light on the excellent work schools are doing to promote mental health for their community of children and adults. It is thrilling and humbling to learn about Woodcote Primary and the many other schools engaged in the quality award process. I’d like to offer my congratulations on this deserved recognition.”

Our Woodcote Whole School Approach to Positive Wellbeing and Mental Health

The following policy details how we achieve our whole school approach to well-being, supporting our children, staff and parents. 

Please follow this link: Positive Mental Health & Well-being 2021-2022