West Kirby School and College achieved the 'Wellbeing Award for Schools' in February 2023. This award is developed in partnership with National Children's Bureau.

We are proud of our practices to support wellbeing across the school and this is fundamental to our school. Our Wellbeing Award working party have been assessing our practices and making further improvements against the award objectives. We've also done surveys to gain feedback from pupils, staff and parents and carers. 

What is the Wellbeing Award?

The award, in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau, promotes positive emotional wellbeing and mental health for pupils, staff and parents. Read more here

 

Here's some highlights from the report:

• Mrs Wilkinson, Award Lead, reported ‘well-being is at the core of what we do and if EWMH is not in the right place we cannot meet pupil’s individual needs'.
• EWMH is integral to the SDP and a pupil friendly version has been developed to highlight the importance of communicating key aspects of EWMH to everyone.
• The school promotes an inclusive ethos.
• Governors are committed, have rigorous monitoring and evaluation in place and are keen to ensure that EWMH is embedded and sustained. 
• Pupils responses were positive with comments such as ‘I help my friends when they are upset and I can give them good advice’ and ‘staff talk to me I can tell them how I am feeling.’
• Parents report that the school really cares that everyone has good emotional wellbeing and mental health and they feel the school encourages parents to talk about how they and their children are feeling.
• The breadth of EWMH approaches both within the curriculum and on a whole school basis is a strength of the school.
• As a result of extensive training staff have an increased knowledge and understanding of how to support pupils EWMH. All staff have received training in mental health.
• Staff demonstrate high levels of awareness of the needs of individual and groups of pupils.
• There is an extensive range of existing intervention in place from school and specialist staff. Given the specialist nature of the school it has extensive internal provision provided by a clinical psychologist, pastoral care team, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, a learning mentor, reading support and a family home-school liaison officer. There are also links with a range of external services.
• Staff well-being has been a key focus and there have been many developments. Staff report they ‘feel very supported’.

 

Why is this award important to West Kirby School and College?

At West Kirby wellbeing and mental health are at the core of everything we do, so we are delighted to have the opportunity to evaluate what we do and recognise ways to improve the mental health and wellbeing of everyone in our school community.

The award focuses on 8 key objectives:

• The school is committed to promoting and protecting positive emotional wellbeing and mental health by achieving the Wellbeing Award for Schools.
• The school has a clear vision and strategy for promoting and protecting emotional wellbeing and mental health which is communicated to all involved with the school.
• The school has a positive culture which regards emotional wellbeing and mental health as the responsibility of all.
• The school actively promotes staff emotional wellbeing and mental health.
• The school prioritises professional learning and staff development on emotional wellbeing and mental health.
• The school understands the different types of emotional and mental health needs across the school and has systems in place to respond appropriately.
• The school actively seeks the ongoing participation of the whole-school community in its approach to emotional wellbeing and mental health.
• The school works in partnership with other schools, agencies and available specialist services to support emotional wellbeing and mental health.

Please read here to see the impact achieving this award has had for other schools. 

Also see our Wellbeing Policy and Strategy for Wellbeing attached below

Award Lead: Mrs Wilkinson, Deputy Head (Personal Development) and SENDCo

 

Wellbeing updates and news

22.06.21 - NHS organisations across Cheshire and Merseyside have teamed up with mental health charity Shout 85258 to provide a free 24-hour-a-day text messaging service.

Since the start of the pandemic, Trusts across Cheshire and Merseyside were at the forefront in recognising that restrictions would have an adverse effect on people’s mental health.

As part of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve access to mental health support, Trusts set-up 24/7 mental health crisis lines. These lines are there to ensure that people get the right level of support, at the right time, for their specific needs.

Further details can be found by following the link below:

New mental health text service launched following success of Cheshire and Merseyside’s 24/7 mental health crisis lines - Cheshire & Merseyside Health & Care Partnership (cheshireandmerseysidepartnership.co.uk)