Positive Mental Health

Mental health is a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community. (World Health Organization)

At Cranberry Academy, we are committed to promoting positive mental health for every child and every member of staff.  We do this in a variety of different ways these include;

• PSHE lessons happen on a weekly basis. In these lessons, mental health and well-being are at the forefront of the children’s learning.
• All our staff recognise the importance of listening to each and every child and their worries/concerns. They can then support them to find a solution/ point them in the right direction for support.
• In each classroom, we have a worry box so that the children can share any concerns in private if they so wish or with their class. The class teachers regularly check the boxes and will go through them with their class or individual children (if required) This enables the children to always feel heard and to gain the support they need.
• Staff run a range of small group interventions weekly that promote and support positive mental health. These happen every week at the academy. Workshops include the Anxiety Gremlin Programme, Cool Connections, and Resilience sessions, as well as 1:1 wellbeing support sessions if needed. In addition, we have staff in school trained in the ELSA programme., to deliver the programme when needed.
• Alongside group interventions, we have a number of staff across school trained in youth Mental Health First aid, who regularly offer advice and support to pupils when needed.
• We invite in charities and companies (NSPCC and Mind for example) to promote positive mental health, by running workshops and assemblies with pupils and classes.
• We run regular assemblies for the children to promote positive mental health and to remind them of the support that is available at the academy.
• We also have a trained counsellor who works in school one afternoon a week. If this is a service you feel your child would benefit from accessing, please contact the school office to discuss a referral.
• Where more specialist support is needed, we would seek further support and guidance from local services such as CAHMs, Vysion, My CWA etc.

For more information, please read our Emotionally Healthy School Policy.