At Holy Family, we support our children's Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) through a variety of different approaches and activities.

We have our own Emotional Literacy Support Assistant, Mrs Eyres, who provides ad hoc wellbeing support, as well as more detailed targeted support for individual children. See tab for more information.

As a school, we use Zones of Regulation to support children to manage the different emotions that we feel and encounter throughout our daily lives. See tab for more information. 

We have our own Education Mental Health Practitioner, Emma Smith, who works for the NHS Mental Health Support Team. See tab for more information. 

We use Emotion Coaching language in all our communication with the children, in order to guide and teach them to use more effective responses when feeling heightened emotions.  See tab for more information. 

All children at Holy Family have a day of Forest School approximately once every small term (depending on the number of weeks in a term). Some children may have additional Forest School sessions if it's felt that it would benefit their social, emotional and mental health (SEMH). 

For children who may need some additional support with developing their social skills, we run programmes such as Brick Club, Time to Talk, Socially Speaking and Talkabout. Some children have more personalised social skills support written into their EHCPs, which is sometimes delivered on a 1:1 basis. This depends on the individual child. 

We offer a 'Wellbeing Club' once a week during the lunchtime period for children in KS2. 

 

If you feel your child may benefit from some more personalised support for their social, emotional and/or mental health, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher or contact our SENDCo, Mrs Collins, on senco@holyfamilyprimary.co.uk

 

Supporting your child's wellbeing

Please see the attachment at the bottom of this page regarding websites and applications (apps) that may be useful in supporting your child's emotional well-being and mental health. These have been provided by our Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP), Emma Smith. 

In Term 2, we hosted a workshop for parents/carers on 'Low Mood & Anxiety'. Please see the PowerPoint slides at the bottom of this page for your information.

/docs/Parent-Signposting-websites_312725431.pdf

/docs/Holy-Fam-Anxiety-and-Low-Mood_312725431.pptx

Education Mental Health Practitioner 

We are very fortunate at Holy Family Primary School to have our own Education Mental Health Practitioner (EMHP), Emma Smith, who is based at our school setting one day per week. 

What is the Mental Health Support Team (MHST)?

The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is here to help your school to develop ways to look after the mental health of its students, staff, parents and carers. 

Our Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs) do this by supporting your school by understanding what you need, providing staff training and offering lessons on wellbeing. 

Our EMHPs are also trained to give 1:1 support to students on anxiety, low mood and other struggles with wellbeing. 

If you feel your child may benefit from Emma's support, please do not hesitate to contact your child's class teacher. 

Emotion Coaching

Based on research by American Psychologist John Gottman, Emotion Coaching uses moments of heightened emotion and resulting behaviour to guide and teach the child and young person about more effective responses.

Through empathetic engagement, the child's emotional state is verbally acknowledged and validated, promoting a sense of security and feeling 'felt'.  This activates changes in the child's neurological system and allows the child to calm down, physiologically and psychologically.

Inappropriate behaviours are not condoned in Emotion Coaching and when the child is calmer, incidents are discussed in a more rational and productive manner.  Moves are made to problem solve and engage in solution-focused strategies. 

Through repetitive, consistent and empathetic Emotion Coaching, the ability of a child to regulate their emotions is promoted.

Key Elements are involved in Emotion Coaching:

• Becoming aware of the child's emotions

• Recognising the emotion as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching

• Listening empathetically, validating the child's feelings

• Helping the child find words to label the emotion

• Setting limits and explore strategies to solve the problem at hand.

https://www.emotioncoachinguk.com/what-is-emotion-coaching

See attachments below for more information about Emotion Coaching language and also the 4 steps and how you might use these at home. 

/docs/Pocket-Guide-to-Emotion-Coaching_313856633.pdf

/docs/Emotion-Coaching-Scripts_313856633.pdf

Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) 

Our ELSA is Mrs Eyres.

ELSAs are Emotional Literacy Support Assistants working in schools. They:

- help children recognise, understand and manage emotions to increase success.

- plan and deliver individual (and small group) support programmes

- receive training and supervision from Educational Psychologists

Different areas an ELSA can support:

1. Emotional literacy in schools / recognising emotions

2. Self-esteem / active listening and communication skills

3. Anger management / working therapeutically

4. Social skills / autistic spectrum difficulties and social narratives

5. Friendship skills / writing therapeutic stories

6. Loss and bereavement / programme planning

The Benefits of Focusing on Emotional Literacy:

- Children learn more effectively when they feel OK.

- If we help children to manage their emotions more effectively and therefore learn better, then we will help to raise standards.

- When children feel better, they get more enjoyment out of their learning

- Developing children’s ability to manage their emotions more effectively reduces their stress levels.

Zones of Regulation

Zones of Regulation is an approach used to support the development of self-regulation in children. All the different ways children feel and the states of alertness they experience are categorised into four coloured zones.

What are the different Zones?

- Blue Zone: low level of arousal; not ready to learn; feels sad, sick, tired, bored, moving slowly.

- Green Zone: calm state of alertness; optimal level to learn; feels happy, calm, feeling okay, focused.

- Yellow Zone: heightened state of alertness; elevated emotions; has some control; feels frustrated, worried, silly/wiggly, excited, loss of some control.

- Red Zone: heightened state of alertness and intense emotions; not an optimal level for learning; out of control; feels mad/angry, terrified, yelling/hitting, elated, out of control.

We will teach the children that everyone experiences all of the Zones. The Red and Yellow zones are not ‘bad’ or ‘naughty’ Zones. All of the Zones are expected at one time or another. We will show them that the Blue Zone, for example, is helpful when you are trying to fall asleep.

Please see the guide below for more information about Zones of Regulation. 

/docs/Parents-Guide-to-ZoR_313854278.pdf