The school vision of providing ‘A Place to BECOME - in Faith, Hope and Love’ was born out of an EEF research project and emphasises effort and motivation and personal development.  The aims of BECOME are as follows: 

• We encourage the children to be Brave - to relish challenges; to share their ideas and views; develop confidence and resilience

•  We encourage our children to be Energetic - to work hard; to listen well and ask questions; to give 100%. 

• We encourage our children to be Creative - to problem solve; to present ideas in different ways; to find different ways of thinking. 

• We encourage our children to be Open - to collaborate; to share; to empathise; to love.

• We encourage our children to be Motivated - to know what to improve; what to learn more about; what will help them learn; what they want to achieve.

• We want our children to be Empowered - to have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed; to be confident global citizens who can be the change.

The school reward system is based on ‘A Place to BECOME’ - children receive postcards and awards recognising their achievements in each of the areas of BECOME and the BECOME competencies are made reference to each day in lessons and are explored in collective worship.  Each week children set themselves personal targets using The Learning Line and the BECOME competencies are also promoted through the curriculum which has a focus on personal and social development.  These include improving one’s own learning and performance through reflection and evaluation, developing independence and responsibility both individual and collective and learning with others, through collaborative learning.  All of this work, which underpins everything that we do at St Margaret’s is ultimately aimed to empower children - it has huge potential to help young children acquire the skills they need to make good academic progress as well as benefit pupils' health and wellbeing.  

Opportunities exist to develop and promote social and emotional skills through a dedicated Personal Social Health Relationship and Economic Education (PSHRE) and these are carefully sequenced and the PSHE Association is utilised to provide further guidance.  THe PSHRE curriculum is a key strand in the school’s preventative approach to mental health and wellbeing.  Furthermore, the school’s programme of worship offers the opportunity to look beyond themselves, ask ‘big questions’, think globally about life, and develop an understanding of disadvantage, deprivation, and the exploitation of the natural world.  The use of an immersive learning platform LyftaEd enables pupils to travel to new places and explore aspects of culture, identity, community and belonging.  

Promoting staff health and wellbeing is an integral principle of our whole school approach; the Workplace Wellbeing Charter National Standards have been utilised to provide a roadmap for driving improvements in this area. 

• Leaders prioritise work life balance for staff - they are well supported by leaders, there is an open door policy and people’s external lives are honoured - house moves, time off for family events,etc. 

• Use of the Workload Reduction Toolkit has enabled any unnecessary burdens to be removed - reduced marking policy; PPA at home for teachers; planning the year in advance to avoid pinch points; lesson monitoring and staff meetings as and when useful - not standard.   Procedures for communications are clear and staff are not expected to respond to queries outside of working hours.  

• School buy into an Employee Assistance Programme (SAS) which provides timely targeted support for emotional wellbeing issues as well as physical illness. 

• Wellbeing in embedded in training and professional development - professional development includes mental health and wellbeing where necessary and has recently included ‘A Staff Toolkit for a Wellbeing Conversation’ (Spring 2022) for all teachers and training in Psychological First Aid for three members of staff (2021/22 academic year)

• Additional support around mental health is channelled to individuals whose role is known to have a significant emotional component - this takes the form of supervision

• Champion flexible working and diversity - flexible working is valued at all career stages and there is a commitment to eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relationships between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.  

• Break down the stigma around mental health - build in campaigns to tackle mental health stigma into school plans.  The same consideration and support is given to mental health as physical health, including in the management of staff absence. 

• Improve access to mental health and wellbeing resources - Google Drive, SAS, 

• Staff are supported to progress in their careers without adversely impacting on their own or other people’s workload. 

The school works in partnership with families - parents and carers are given regular opportunities to give their views and there is a whole school programme of parent involvement in place (this has been partly reintroduced this academic year after being paused due to covid and will recommence next year).  Parental questionnaires are very positive 

Targeted support is offered to parents as needed, including completing  Early Help Assessments and providing nurturing and coaching workshops/individual support for families;  the school has previously provided both Webster Stratton Classes as well as the FAST (Families and Schools Together Intervention - Save the Children Intervention).

There are clear referral pathways in the setting (including self-referrals ensure access to support) as well as a range of interventions that have been proven to be effective. Universal support, which develops all children’s social, emotional and behavioural competencies and focuses on classroom-based approaches is well developed and embedded within every classroom. There is a graduated response to children at risk of developing difficulties or those with more complex and enduring emotional or mental health needs and since developing the SEMH provision map, signposting to relevant resources has improved. The school pastoral team is experienced and includes a qualified counsellor -  high quality targeted and intense work is provided, including reaching out to families.  The provision map ensures greater use of external professionals to add value to the programmes in place.  External agency involvement is sought for those children with more complex and enduring emotional or mental health needs.

The Oldham whole school and college approach to emotional health and mental wellbeing aims to promote social, emotional and mental wellbeing.

The framework offers practical guidance to schools and colleges to develop knowledge and skills to promote mental health and wellbeing and prevent minor problems from escalating into more serious long-term issues.

The document contains key actions that head teachers and college principles can take to embed the whole school approach to emotional health and mental wellbeing.  

The actions are based on the eight principles.

These are:

• The school ethos and environment
• Curriculum, teaching and learning
• Student voice
• Staff development, health and wellbeing
• Identifying need and monitoring impact
• Working with parents / carers
• Targeted support

Oldham Council Mental Health SUpport