At Hadley Wood Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.  

 At our school we:

  • help children to understand their emotions and feelings better                    
  • help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
  • help children socially to form and maintain relationships
  • promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they count
  • encourage children to be confident
  • help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks 

We offer different levels of support:

Universal Support– To meet the needs of all our pupils through our overall ethos and our wider curriculum. For instance developing resilience for all.

Additional support– For those who may have short term needs and those who may have been made vulnerable by life experiences such as bereavement.  

Targeted support– For pupils who need more differentiated support and resources or specific targeted interventions such as Nurture Group interventions led by our Learning Mentor.

CREW Week 2020

The first Hadley Wood CREW Week took place in February 2020. It was a roaring success! It was wonderful to watch the children grow in confidence and enjoy the range of activities they took part in throughout the course of the week.

The theme of CREW week was to focus on developing our children’s Creativity, Resilience, Engagement and Wellbeing as part of the school’s focus on developing the mental health and wellbeing of our children. Throughout the course of the week the children took part in a wide range of activities including:

Pilates workshops led by Mrs Nagy-Bhavsar throughout the course of the week. The children loved the opportunity to build core strength and muscle balance as well as develop their wellbeing.

Each class designed and then created their own healthy dish. In class, the children learned about the importance of a healthy, balanced diet in order to maintain their physical wellbeing.

To develop the children’s mental wellbeing, each class explored their feelings during PSHE lessons and took part in daily meditation sessions.

Throughout the week, the children learned about the importance of engagement and teamwork by taking part in lots of team games. A specialist company came and worked with the children to solve a ‘Mission Possible’ resilience and team building challenge as part of a whole-day mental health and resilience workshop.

Children’s Mental Health Week 2020 – Find Your Brave

Hadley Wood Primary School proudly supported Children’s Mental Health Week 2020.  We encouraged children, young people and adults to be brave. It’s all about #FindYourBrave

When we have a positive view of ourselves it can help us to cope with life’s challenges, and recognising the different qualities of others can allow us to connect with those around us – which is vital for our own and others’ wellbeing.

CREW Week 2021

In the 2020-2021 academic year, we felt that good mental health and wellbeing was more important than ever due to the Covid 19 pandemic. We delayed our second CREW Week until May 2021 in the hope that we could work together as a whole-school team to develop our Creativity, Resilience, Engagement and Wellbeing. However, due to the bubble system in place this was not possible so we went ahead and organised individual bubble events centred around our CREW Week theme throughout the course of the week.

During CREW Week 2021 the children enjoyed learning about the importance of a healthy mind and a Growth-Mindset approach to learning, taking part in a series of mindfulness activities. A huge thank you to Ms Rose, who came into school to lead yoga sessions with each of the KS1 classes. It is always lovely to welcome parents into school. If you have a particular skill or talent which you feel could be helpful to us during our theme weeks, please let us know!

The children also took part in a Guinness World Record attempt to make the longest Curly Wurly. This developed their creativity, engagement teamwork, resilience and problem solving skills as they had to develop a team strategy before attempting the challenge.

Mr Taylor (our PE coach) and Mrs Albon (our PE Subject Leader) planned some wonderful team sports to develop the children’s resilience and teamwork skills.

CREW Week 2022

This year we hosted our third CREW Week in February as this aligned with Children’s Mental Health Week. Our theme this year was ‘Growing Together’. During the course of the week we explored the importance of keeping our minds and bodies healthy. We also explored ways in which we could help our minds to be healthier and demonstrate good mental health through support mechanisms such as mindfulness and Growth Mindset.

During CREW Week 2022 the children all took part in exciting Zumba lessons led by Ms Borzymowska, where the children had the chance to express themselves in a creative way through the medium of dance. The children also took part in Mental Health workshops which were delivered by Challenge Education to support them with their understanding of how our brains can affect our bodies.

Useful links

https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/

A public health England and NHS site to help people take simple steps to look after their mental health, improve their mental wellbeing and support others.

https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/

Quality-assured information, advice and resources to help primary schools understand and promote children’s mental health and wellbeing.