Mental Health

At St Joseph’s we want our children to thrive and to be happy. However, we recognise that our children’s lives are increasingly complex, and with the world more connected than ever, they are exposed to more and more content. We strive to enable our children to understand, reflect on and promote that good mental health is just as important as good physical health.

Being strong mentally also enables the children to fully access learning, make progress and reach their potential.

Recognising and understanding feelings, and knowing what to do with them, is a vital life skill and one we help children develop.

At St Joseph’s we actively promote and help children look after their own Mental Health. On this page, you will find a bank of resources that we use in school, and that you are able to access to also use.

ELSA

We also have Mrs Langan as our trained Mental Health Lead and Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA). Mrs Langan works with children across the school, helping them make sense of their emotions. This is particularly needed when children are going through times of crisis (bereavement, family break ups, anxieties, stress etc). Mrs Langan has a dedicated room, full of resources, in which to work with children, identifying their feelings, and triggers and then providing coaching and support for strategies to help them regulate themselves. Referral to Mrs Langan can come via the Class Teacher and SENDCo (some work does have to be triaged on a needs basis). However, Mrs Langan also has time in her week set aside for children to ‘self refer’. They do this by completing a note and putting it in a locked ‘worry box’. On the note, the children explain what they are worried about, Mrs Langan then reads these confidentialy and then arranges time to talk with them. We also now have an online form, which the children can access here.

Useful Resources

  • Breathing Techniques - When we feel anxious, upset or distressed, it can be difficult to know what to do to feel better. By using these breathing techniques, we can reduce our anxiety and lower our blood pressure/heart rate. This helps us feel calmer and more focused. Click here to download

  • Calming Techniques - Calming or Grounding techniques are a good way to reduce our heart rate/blood pressure when feeling worried or anxious. It helps us refocus our attention and overcome those unpleasant feelings so we can feel better and do more. Click here to download

  • Progressive Muscle Relaxation - A guide to help raise awareness of our body and muscles and how to release tension. Click here to download

  • Managing anxiety - Lots of things can make us feel anxious and lots of us feel anxious at some point. This Powerpoint explains what anxiety is and how to know the difference between when it can be helpful and when it can impact us negatively. Click here to download.

  • Positive Affirmation - A positive affirmation is a positive thought or statement we can tell ourselves to help raise our self- esteem and feel better. Our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all linked together! So, if we can think more positively about ourselves, we will feel more positive and do more positive things. Click here to download

  • Fight, Flight or Freeze - a video guide to how we react to a sense of danger or unease. Click here to view

  • Thrive - Parent Workshop - click here to download the presentation used at a Parent Workshop for supporting your child to Thrive

  • 5 finger breathing - a guide to download for a breathing technique to calm

  • Food and Mood - click here to download an information guide on how diet can support mental health and wellbeing

  • 5 ways to mental wellbeing - tips to download

  • Self-Soothe box - guidance and ideas on how to make your own Self-Soothe box at home. Click to download