Trailblazers- Mental Health Support Team

Meet our Year 6 Wellbeing Ambassadors

Our Year 6 Wellbeing Ambassadors promote wellbeing across the whole school. These children volunteered at the beginning of the school year to play a crucial role in supporting all of our Ellingham children and their emotional wellbeing.

They run a weekly lunchtime wellbeing club with our Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner, providing a safe space for all children access and use in the best way to support their wellbeing. All the children know who they are and that they can go to them when they are on the playground.

Emotional Wellbeing at Ellingham

All children need to feel safe and comfortable in their environment in order to learn well and we pride ourselves on the work we have done to ensure that all of our children are supported. Ellingham is an Attachment Aware school, which means that all staff have been trained to recognise children who are facing emotional difficulties and understand strategies to help the children through tricky times. Key to this is having trusted adults in school, positive relationships with all staff, being listened to with kindness and understanding and feeling supported by classmates where appropriate.

To build such a culture Mrs Sephton, Mrs Malherbe and Mrs Davis lead as part of the Inclusion and Pupil Support Team. A fortnightly well-being assembly reinforces the strategies for managing emotional struggles and all teachers and children practice the principles of Zones of Regulation. All of the children know that they can request Talk-Talk time if they feel worried. Parents can also request staff check-ins if they are concerned about something that is happening at home that might impact their child or other concerns. The team supports children by helping them recognise emotions, raise self-esteem, develop social skills and friendship skills, understand and manage their anger and cope with loss and bereavement and they may be offered sessions from Mrs Davis or Mrs Malherbe as Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA).

If children are facing more extensive trauma or attachment issues, we make a referral to the Mental Health Support Team, who are linked to our school, and have access to creative therapies for children and support for parents whose children are experiencing low mood or anxiety.

Please contact pupilsupport@elp.rbksch.org or directly Mrs Sephton, Mrs Malherbe and Mrs Davis to talk through any worries you may have throughout your child’s time at Ellingham Primary School.

Mrs Sephton

Mrs Malherbe

Mrs Davis

Keeping in the Zone

From time to time, all of us find it hard to manage strong feelings such as worry, anger, restlessness, fear or tiredness, and this stops us from getting on with our day effectively.

Children who feel these emotions often find it hard to learn and concentrate in school and often can react disproportionately to small challenges. The Zones of Regulation aims to teach children strategies to help them cope with these feelings so they can get back to feeling calm and ready to learn. These coping strategies are called ‘self-regulation’.

Ellingham School Latest News

Wellbeing Calendar Autumn 2024

Why not try our daily wellbeing challenges- Good Luck!

Wellbeing Ambassadors Take Over Assembly!

The Year 6 Wellbeing Ambassadors lead exciting Wellbeing Assemblies. In Mental Health Week, they carefully planned a ‘Grounding’ activity as a warm up, led a Mental Health Quiz and ended with some thought provoking quotes.

As part of the assembly, children were asked about their Happy Places.

Children shared their ideas:

‘My happy place is school because I love being with my friends’

‘My home is my happy place’

‘The beach is my happy place because it is beautiful and calm’

Mental Health Primary Conference

Our Year 6 Well-being ambassadors took part in the Mental Health Primary Conference at Southborough Secondary School in September 2024.

During the event they took part in various activities and developed their understanding of resilience, working as a team and learned how to play the kindness game. They learnt about calming strategies and created an action plan for what they wanted to achieve back at school.

One of their actions was to lead a well-being assembly. We can't wait to see our ambassadors blossom this year!

Children's Mental Health Week 2024

Children at Ellingham Primary School took part in Mental Health Week, May 2024 and completed a variety of activities to encourage themselves to 'Connect' with one another.

Trailblazers- Mental Health Support Team

As a school we are very lucky to have a Mental Health Support Team working with us in supporting the children's mental health. If you are interested in supporting with your child's mental health further please follow the link below to the Emotional Health Service website - Emotional Health Service website

The Mental Health Support Team deliver short term, evidence-based interventions for children and young people experiencing mild to moderate mental health difficulties, such as anxiety, low mood and behaviour difficulties. They are based in schools across Kingston and Richmond.

Hannah Cleevely is a Mental Health Clinician and Dramatherapist for the Mental Health Support Team, who works closely with Ellingham Primary School. She runs individual and group therapy sessions using creativity as a means of self expression. She also runs workshops and training for children, teachers and parents/carers.

Miranda is an Education Wellbeing Practitioner working as part of the MHST in Kingston. She provides 1:1 and group work based on cognitive-behavioural techniques (CBT) for mild to moderate mental health needs. This includes work with parents to help children overcome anxiety through ‘graded exposure’ and promote positive relationships & desirable behaviours. She can also offer a range of group work on Building resilience, Friendships, Transition, Emotional Literacy and Exam Anxiety.

Clara Henrich is an Art Psychotherapist working in the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) at Achieving for Children in Kingston. Art psychotherapy primarily uses artistic means as a means of expression and communication to explore emotions and difficulties in a safe, reflective, confidential and non-judgmental environment. It can help to create positivity, new perspectives and strengthen self-esteem through the creative process, which is tailored to meet the child's needs.

Email the Pupil Support team

To make a self referral please email the Pupil Support team with the name of the young person, their date of birth, class and a brief reason as to why you are making the referral. Please note in making this self referral you are agreeing to this information being passed to the Mental Health Team.

MHST parent drop ins poster.pdf

Tips for Families.pdf

F KRYC MH Newsletter 23 pdf.pdf

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