At The Aldgate School, we believe that in order for a child to fulfil their potential academically, they must first have their wellbeing needs met. During their time at our school, we expect that every child will feel valued, supported and be given the skills to demonstrate resilience, empathy, kindness and respect throughout all aspects of their life.
Our children are taught a range of skills to help them develop emotionally and successfully navigate difficult situations. We encourage our pupils to learn about taking responsibility for their own health and wellbeing, to equally value their achievements and learn from their mistakes. We teach them to learn about the rights and responsibilities of others, and to respect and value the richness and diversity of our society.
Throughout a child's time at The Aldgate School, we will focus on different aspects of wellbeing such as resilience, transition, and challenge. We invite speakers into school to share their experiences and perspectives on these key topics, as well as holding assemblies and covering this through aspects of class learning - eg, PSHE and RE. We also participate in national events across the year, such as Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, Friendship week and Safer Internet Day, to ensure a broad range of information, experiences and stimulating discussion takes place in school.
We understand that, frim time to time, managing children's wellbeing and mental health can be challenging as a parent or carer. We have a range of resources and several staff in school that you can access throughout the year and we host meetings and workshops to explore strategies for management and a supportive space where needed.
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At The Aldgate School, we have accredited Mental Health First Aiders who have been equipped with the skills needed to support their own and others’ well-being. They have been trained to:
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At The Aldgate School we have Ms Barry who is an ELSA in the afternoons. An ELSA is an 'Emotional Literacy Support Assistant'. There is a recognised ELSA training course aimed specifically at Teaching Assistants in schools. Elsa's can work with children on a 1:1 basis or as a small group. Examples of things they might support with are social skills, emotions, bereavement, anger management, self-esteem. They may use social stories and therapeutic stories in their sessions or counselling skills such as solution focussed work and friendship work. |
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Zones of Regulation is a strategy that we use with children 1:1, small group or as a whole class. It teaches children about the emotions and how they might feel when experiencing different emotions. Then children choose strategies (tools) to keep in their ‘toolkit’ to draw on when necessary, for example if they are worried they might count to 10 slowly in their heads or do some deep breathing.
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For any further information on any of our social, emotional and mental health provision please contact our SENDCo, Phil Watkins. Contact details can be found at the bottom of the website. |
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The WAMHS Project supports schools to nurture an environment where children and young people can learn about all areas of life. WAMHS focuses on building academic, social, and emotional resilience and coping skills in students and helping them to identify and access additional support if needed. The project is also based on further developing knowledge and skills in education staff so that they are more confident and feel more able to support students, and their families, who may be experiencing mental health difficulties.
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At The Aldgate School we have a trained Art Therapist who works with us one day a week. Art Therapy can help children for many different reasons some might include:
We start each session by having a check-in about how you are. The middle part is to make art and we finish by looking at what you have made. We put the art in a box to keep safe for next time, and at the end of the sessions you can choose to take it home. Here’s how some of the children explain Art Therapy: ‘Art Therapy is different to normal therapy because there is something to do and it is easier to think’. ‘Art Therapy, for me, is a space that is calm and peaceful and not overwhelming. In Art Therapy there are activities.’ ‘Art Therapy is talking about your feelings and telling stories from my art.’ In Art Therapy there is unlimited paper so that you can draw, then we look at it for a while and if you want to keep it private you can.” |
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At The Aldgate School we have a School Counsellor who is a trained psychodynamic psychotherapist. She works with children on an individual basis offering a safe, secure and trusting environment where children are able to express themselves and navigate their feelings in the way that suits them best - drawing, talking, creating, small world play etc. Children may be referred to Gill for a variety of reasons, it may be that they are coming to terms with a diagnosis of additional need, experiencing a challenging family separation, having difficulty regulating their behaviour or just finding things harder to cope with than would be expected. Gill's sessions run weekly on a Thursday. |
Wellbeing and Mental Health Support Sessions
