Health and Wellbeing

At St Leonard's, our aim is to care for and develop the whole child educationally, emotionally, spiritually, morally and physically. As well as caring for their education we also care for their mental health and wellbeing and feel that it is essential to provide children with information to enable them to make life long, well informed decisions about their diet and health. 

We aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing of every member of our school community and recognise how important mental health and wellbeing is to our lives, as is physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health and overall wellbeing can affect their learning and achievement.

Positive wellbeing is promoted through the curriculum and all school activities. Through a carefully planned approach to PSHE our pupils are helped to acquire the knowledge and develop the skills and understanding they need to lead confident, healthy, independent lives, and to become resilient, informed and responsible citizens.

In addition, whole school approaches such as assemblies and circle time sessions are used to further develop the pupils’ knowledge of strategies. We promote national campaigns such as Children's Mental Health Week in February and Anti-bullying Week in November. During these events, the focus is on mindfulness and resilience with the purpose of teaching children strategies for dealing with anxiety and coping with changes. 

What is Ollee?

School, friendships, bullying, their bodies… Some subjects aren’t easy for children to talk about.

Ollee is a new app from ParentZone which helps children aged 8-11 open up about what’s troubling them – and helps parents and carers offer them extra support.

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Nip in the Bud works with mental health professionals to produce short films and fact sheets to help parents, primary school teachers and others caring for and working with children to recognise potential mental health conditions. The goal is to increase the prospects of early intervention and to reduce the risks of those conditions becoming more serious in later years.

Example of some Nip in the Bud guides:

Recognising Anxiety Fact Sheet

Recognising Depression Fact Sheet

Supporting Children Returning to School After Lockdown

More Useful Links

Going Back to School

Every Mind Matters

Talking to My Child- MindEd

The Expert Parent's Guide to Childhood Anxiety

ADHD Parenting Tips- Help Guide

Managing the transition to homeschooling for children
with SEND 

We are supporting Anti-bullying week (15 - 19 November) in school with learning activities to increase children's awareness and understanding of the importance of respect, diversity, equality and justice.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance, in conjunction with Kidscape, have created a toolkit for parents and carers, designed to give information about bullying, tips about what to do if they're worried about bullying and the tools to help them talk to their children about bullying. 

This document can be downloaded from the following link.

Anti-Bullying Week Parent Pack

Secondary School Transition Guidance

Leaving primary school and moving to secondary school can be an anxious time for some children, and their parents and carers.  

This short guide provides tips about how children preparing for, or going through, the transition to secondary school can best be supported by their parents and carers. It includes guidance which explains why the transition can be difficult for some children, and practical advice such as talking and connecting with the new school, as well as suggested resources that children and parents and carers may find useful.

The disruption to normal family life, caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, has had a huge impact on the mental health and wellbeing of us all. 

On this page, we have provided links to some organisations and resources that you may find helpful in supporting your child's, your own mental health and wellbeing.

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Child Friendly Explanation of Coronavirus