Mental Health & Wellbeing

Hujjat Primary School delivers high quality, nurturing provision that focuses on developing the whole child. 

The emotional wellbeing of children is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health allows children and young people to develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into well-rounded, healthy adults. At Hujjat Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff, parents and carers. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and, at times, anyone may need additional emotional support.

All children can experience ups and downs in their life and some unfortunately have to face significant life events which will affect their mental health and wellbeing.  In 2017, about 1 in 10 children aged between 5 and 16 had a diagnosable mental health need.  This can have a huge impact on the child’s experience of life, their relationships and their achievements at school.  To this end, the Department of Education acknowledges that “in order for children to succeed, schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. 

At our school we:

• encourage children to reflect on the school values to support their mental health and wellbeing
• 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 

To support this, we have a school therapist and mental health and wellbeing champions (the DSL/SENDCo and DDSL) who the children can access in times of need.   As an integrated part of the learning support team within Hujjat, the aim is to work with children and their families to help them manage times of change or difficulty, and that they are supported to reach their potential or access support when they need it. They also work to ensure that children learn how to maintain positive mental health, understand what can affect their mental health, how they can help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, and where they can go if they need help and support.

Some of the issues a child may experience which become a barrier to their learning could include:

• Anxiety, worries and low mood
• Difficulties at home
• Behaviour
• Issues concerning bullying/friendships/social anxieties
• Dealing with bereavement/loss 
• General disaffection and disengagement from learning 
• Worries about transferring from primary to high school 
• Difficulties with organisation

Early intervention for young people with emotional, behavioural or social difficulties can help prevent mental health problems becoming more serious in the future or developing in the first place.

We all have mental health. Mental health is about our feelings, our thoughts, our emotions and our moods.

We all have a range of feelings everyday and our moods fluctuate and change all the time.  Feelings can be happy or sad and can be very strong or feel overwhelming, but usually tend to pass before too long.

Sometimes we might experience very big or overwhelming feelings which affect our daily lives and stop us from doing or enjoying things that we would normally do. This is the time we might need some help or support.