Wellbeing

At St Paul’s Catholic Primary School we aim to support the wellbeing of our children, staff and parents in a range of ways:

Mental Health Lead - Claire Rogers

Claire Rogers is the school’s Mental Health Lead. Her role involves developing a whole-school approach to promoting better mental health and wellbeing for all staff, children and parents/carers as well as creating a culture of openness when talking about mental health. She liaises with different people from across school to keep mental health and wellbeing at the fore.

Parent Link Officer - Karen Dinning

Karen Dinning is the school-based Parent Link Officer. She’s here to listen, offer support, empathise and care.  She is available to work with parents who need information about school matters as well as requiring help accessing other agencies. She has access to an extensive range of information and can sign-post parents to a variety of services:

  • Attendance issues
  • Behaviour support
  • Family circumstances affecting your child e.g. parental separation, bereavement, etc
  • Medical/health concerns
  • Offer signposting information to other agencies, e.g. school nurse,

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) – Lyn Youell

Lyn Youell is the school’s ELSA.  ELSAs are a specialist teaching assistant with a wealth of experience of working with children who are trained and regularly supervised by the Educational Psychologists.  Lyn’s aim is to build your child’s emotional development and help them cope with life’s challenges.  She will help your child to find solutions to problems they may have.

Education Mental Health Practitioner - in training  (EMHP) - Rob Altoft     MH2.png

Rob Altoft is from the Mental Health Support Team. He will be working at St Paul's Catholic Primary School every week, on Thursdays. Rob is a trainee Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP) and he works as part of a Mental Health Support Team (MHST) from Off The Record (a children's charity in Bristol).
 
A MHST works with schools to support young people who are struggling with their thoughts and feelings.
 
How can a EMHP help children and young people?
  • We work with children or parent/carers on a 1-1 or group basis to show ways of taking care of your child's mental health.
  • In primary schools, we can work 1-1 or in groups with parents giving them new ideas for supporting their child's mental health.
  • We support schools to delivers a "whole-school approach" to Mental Health. This means we support the entire school with their wellbeing by delivering group workshops, assemblies, creating resources and lots more!
 
Our logo is an otter because, like otters, we work as part of a team and we use tools!
Some of our favourite tools are self-care, challenging negative thoughts, problem solving and managing worries.
 
We want to share these tools with you so that you can look after your own wellbeing and build your resilience.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Events

Tuesday 10th October 2023 – World Mental Health Day

W/C Monday 20th November 2023 – Anti-Bullying Week

W/C Monday 5th February 2024 – Children’s Mental Health Week

Tuesday 6th February 2024 – Safer Internet Day

Friday 8th March 2024 – International Women’s Day

W/C Monday 6th May 2024 – Mental Health Awareness Week

Useful websites and information for parents from South Glos SEND Support Teams

How to Talk to Your Child about Mental Health – Young Minds

Meditation for Children

Tutorful - The Expert Parents' Guide to Childhood Anxiety

A guide for parents to help children understand, cope and become strengthened by their experiences of anxiety at a young age.

Mind You

Launched for parents and young people to help access information about mental health.

Anna Freud

A useful site for schools, families and young people.