Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. (World Health Organisation)

At The Whitchurch Church of England Federation, we are committed to promoting positive mental health for every child and every member of staff.  We do this in a variety of different ways these include –

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· PSHE lessons happen on a weekly basis. In these lessons, mental health and well-being are at the forefront of the children’s learning.

· We are proactive in building emotional well-being, mental health and resilience to all individuals.

· All our staff recognise the importance of listening to each and every child and their worries/concerns. They can then support them to find a solution/ point them in the right direction for support.

· In each classroom we have a worry box so that the children can share any concerns in private if they so wish or with their class. The class teachers regularly check the boxes and will go through them with their class or individual children (if required) This enables the children to always feel heard and to gain the support they need.

· Teachers and teaching and learning practitioners run a range of interventions that promote positive mental health.

· We invite in charities and companies (NSPCC for example) to promote positive mental health.

· We run regular assemblies for the children to promote positive mental health and to remind them of the support that is available at the academy.

· We use the Jigsaw PSHE Whole school programme which works on building emotional well-being, mental health and resilience and the REST scale is used to measure resilience and to measure the impact of the Jigsaw PSHE programme.