Mental Health and Wellbeing at St Michael’s
Mrs Candice Regan
Designated Mental Health Lead
(DMHL)
Miss Wendy White
Deputy Designated Mental Health Lead
(DDMHL)
What is mental health?
Mental health is “a state of wellbeing”. It involves the way we think, how we feel, our behaviour and our ability to deal with our daily lives.
In recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgement of the important role mental health plays in our lives.
Having positive mental health enables us to:
- Cope with the stresses of life
- Express and manage feelings and emotions both positive and negative
- Feel happy and confident about ourselves
- Tackle daily challenges
- Learn new skills
Here at St. Michael’s we have an open-door policy whereby we strive to ensure all members of our school community, including children, parents, staff and governors know they can come and report concerns or worries and that there is always someone here to listen.
Work with children
We want to teach our children how to look after their mental health. Mental health and well-being links into our curriculum and are delivered in the following ways:
- Time to talk; this is embedded into our daily routine
- Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural curriculum
- Physical Education
- Nurture Time
- Citizenship
- KidSafe
- Feel Good Fridays; where children are able to take part in activities that encourage well-being or choose activities of interest to them.
We also celebrate childrens’ achievements in our weekly Praise Assembly. This includes our ‘learning teddy certificate,’ awarded to one child per year group for positive learning behaviour throughout the week.
We have recently celebrated ‘Hello Yellow’ in school with the children to help raise awareness of mental health and we will continue to celebrate mental health days throughout the year with our school community.
All staff in school are responsible for the health and well-being of themselves and promoting that of others. The staff here are very good at listening to one and other and support each other to try and find solutions to problems promptly. Staff are praised for their hard work and their contributions and advice are very much valued. Staff are aware of a healthy work/life balance and are encouraged to take breaks and stay away from work related emails and messages in their personal time.
Miss White
As part of the mental health team I would like to introduce myself. My name is Wendy White. I have worked at St. Michael’s for 18 years. Anyone who knows me knows my favourite place is on top of one of the Wainwright fells out in the lakes. It definitely lifts my spirits and gives me a great deal of contentment!
I am really passionate about my new role in mental health. I have experiences of mental health over the years through people I know, family members, and also personally after having my first child. I am aware that this is a broad topic and that there are many forms of mental health. I am looking forward to gaining a greater understanding of all aspects of mental health and well-being and using it to help others.
Most of us will have experience of mental health issues or know someone close that has been affected.
Please don’t suffer in silence. If you need help or advice with anything, big or small, we are here to help!
Remember . . .
School Buddies
Each half term, two School Buddies are chosen by Miss White to help the other children and work as role models for their peers.
School Buddies are carefully chosen by the skills they have demonstrated which Miss White feels would benefit the entire school community.
They are extremely helpful with the younger children, particularly at lunch times and during transition periods around school.
Please see below to check out our School Buddies this year.
Autumn 2 2023
Autumn 1 2023
School Buddies Spring 1 and Spring 2
