Well-Being and Mental Health are a big focus for us here at Westfield Primary School. Our newsletters have a page dedicated to well-being every month and we also have this well-being page here on our website.

Through this page and our newsletters you will be able to find out about well-being at Westfield and also useful websites you may want to visit.

As you will be aware, we have been working towards the national Well-Being Award for Schools since November 2018. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to say we have achieved this award! We had our verification day on 10th February 2020 and the external adjudicator was very impressed with everything she saw and heard. We have found working towards the award a very valuable process in helping us focus and guide our work on promoting and developing well-being and positive mental health at Westfield – something we will continue to do.

Thank you to everyone who came to our first ‘Well-being event for parents’ on Friday 10^th January. We hope you all enjoyed it and found the time to relax, whilst also learning about ways to improve your own and your children’s well-being. Lots of you enjoyed using our sensory playdough, the recipe can be found below (it is also in February’s newsletter) – why not try making it at home? You can then add the colours, flavours and glitter as you wish.

Don’t forget that at Westfield we follow the 5 ways to well-being. We use our weekly well-being time (every Friday afternoon) to particularly focus on these five ways. Why not ask your children about the five ways, do they have a favourite, what works well for them?

The 5 Ways to Well-Being:

1. To connect

2. To keep learning

3. To be active

4. To take notice

5. To give

We have well-being champions at Westfield, these are displayed in every classroom. Our well-being champions are the members of our well-being committee (staff members from every aspect of school life), our well-being ambassadors (these are pupils from Year 6), our well-being assistant (Mrs Pearce) and  our mental health first aider (Miss Weaver). However, all our staff ‘champion’ well-being.

If your child is looking for things to do, or you both need a bit of inspiration, have a look at the ‘100 Things to do before you leave Westfield’ activity sheet, it is full of fun activities, and the activities fit really well with the 5 ways to well-being too!

 

Useful websites:

Place 2 Be parenting Smart

https://parentingsmart.place2be.org.uk/?utm_source=Sprint1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=parenting-smart

Childline:

Childline’s website has a useful ‘calm down’ zone, with activities which aim to help children feel better when they are feeling anxious, scared or sad. The ideas include breathing exercises, a ‘let it go’ box and creating a ‘sense drawer’. https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/calm-zone/

A Million and Me:

‘As part of BBC Children In Need's national programme around children and young people's mental health, we're developing support for parents and carers of 8 to 13 year olds.’  Look at this website for more information:

https://youngminds.org.uk/youngminds-professionals/our-projects/a-million-and-me/ 

This website gives tips to parents to help their child with transition to secondary school:

https://www.place2be.org.uk/what-we-do/parent-carer-resources/ready-for-secondaryhigh-school.aspx

Transitions:

The leaflet below has information to help parents support their children at the beginning of each term.

Be Your Best website

Supporting the family to eat better and move more.

https://www.bybsurrey.org/resources-for-parents/other-health-topics