St. Dunstan's Catholic School Website
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Welcome to St. Dunstan's Catholic School Website |
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Keeping Healthy
St. Dunstan’s is committed to promoting healthy living for all of our pupils – this is an important part of our mission to provide a well-rounded education that prepares pupils for their future. As part of this commitment, we follow the Surrey Healthy Schools approach. This approach applies evidenced based practice, promoting positive physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing, and identifies 5 key themes:
Personal, Health, Social, Economic Education (PSHE) For information regarding how we incorporate healthy living into our curriculum, please see our EPR (Education in Personal Relationships) page that can be found here .
At St. Dunstan’s we encourage pupils to eat healthily e.g. through the expectation that a break time snack is a fresh piece of fruit or vegetable, ensuring the school meals provide a healthy diet for the children, regular suggestions of ideas for a healthy lunch box and through elements of the curriculum such as Design and Technology (specifically Cooking and Nutrition) and Science – details of how the curriculum supports healthy living can be found on the D&T and Science pages of the website that can be found here. Useful websites: Surrey County Council information re. school lunches Our school meal provider, Twelve15 School milk provider BBC Good Food: School packed lunch inspiration NHS Change4Life: Healthier lunchbox recipes and NHS about Change4Life NHS Healthy Start Scheme Tesco Real Food: Lunch box ideas for kids Emotional wellbeing and Mental Health  Over the course of their education, children spend over 7,800 hours at school. With such a huge amount of time spent in the classroom, our school provides an ideal environment for promoting good emotional wellbeing and identifying early behaviour changes and signs of mental distress. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom can help them to build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their mental health throughout their lives. Emotional wellbeing is a clear indicator of academic achievement, success and satisfaction in later life. Evidence shows that mental health and wellbeing programs in schools, can lead to significant improvements in children’s mental health, and social and emotional skills. Wellbeing provision in schools can also lead to reductions in classroom misbehaviour and bullying. The Anna Freud Centre has a really useful website and leaflet for parents to help you talk to your children about mental health: Website: https://www.annafreud.org/schools-and-colleges/resources/advice-for-parents-and-carers-talking-mental-health-with-young-people-at-primary-school/ Leaflet: https://www.annafreud.org/media/11396/tmh-parent-leaflet-final-web-updated-by-ed-april-2020.pdf What are we doing as a school to support children with their health and emotional wellbeing?
We recognise that children need to know that they matter, that we value them, that their voice can be heard, that we can help them, that we will be here for them. We acknowledge them every day through greetings, a gesture, a nod, a smile and a conversation. We talk about the power of 'I know', 'I appreciate', 'I understand' - to children some things are huge, and we need to recognise this and affirm their feelings for that thing - be it a scratch they have, a funny feeling in their tummy, a sad feeling because of a falling out, a sigh because they cannot do something - we need to set aside our 'rush' to teach and ensure progress and attainment and ensure that we have done our best to support our children to be ready to learn - emotionally available. We do this at all levels - leadership to office staff, teachers to midday supervisors. Teaching staff have received training with the CAMHS Primary Mental Health Team through TAMHS (Targeted Mental Health in Schools) around issues such as mental health and anxiety. What is mental health? ‘Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.’ You may find this website helpful: www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health
Supporting your child to develop good resilience (the ability to bounce back from adverse situations) will support your child’s mental health. You can find out more about resilience and how to help your child build their resilience here. Useful websites: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - ADHD Eating Disorders Centre for Mental health Childhood Development - Understanding Childhood YoungMinds - Mental Health and YoungMinds - Mental Health Medication Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) MIND - Mental Health e-learning to support healthy minds Suicide Prevention Place2be - Improving children's mental health Royal College of Psychiatrists The Mix Mental Health National Autistic Society - Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Other useful organisations: The freedom program - Oasis - Touching peoples lives Surrey Young Carers My Time for Young Carers Catch 22 Relate Young Person Counselling Services Jigsaw4U Surrey Children's Social Services Surrey Youth Support Services Assessment, Consultation, Therapy Domestic Abuse Useful books and resources:
Bereavement and Loss If your family has suffered a bereavement, separation or loss please let us know so that we can provide your child with support. Mrs O'Donovan, Leader of Inclusion, oversees the pastoral needs of children in the school and would be your best point of contact. They can be contacted via the school office.
You may also find these links helpful: Winston's Wish - Giving hope to grieving children Jigsaw South East - Supporting children through the loss of a loved one Childhood Bereavement Network - The hub for those supporting bereaved children ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant)  We are very lucky to have a trained member of staff in
school who is an ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant).What is an ELSA? An ELSA is a specialist teaching assistant with a wealth of experience of working with children. ELSAs are trained and regularly supervised by the Educational Psychologists in your local education authority. An ELSA is a warm and caring person who wants to help your child feel happy in school and to reach their potential educationally. Their aim is to remove the barriers to learning and to have happy children in school and at home. What might an ELSA help a child with?
How do ELSA sessions work?
Asthma: asthma up Anaphylaxis: Anaphylaxis Campaign - Supporting people at risk of severe allergies Allergies: Allergy UK - Information, advice, conditions and symptoms Weight management Be Your Best
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St. Dunstan's Catholic Primary School, Onslow Crescent, Woking, Surrey.
GU22 7AX Tel: 01483 715190
email: office@stdunstans.surrey.sch.uk |
Be Your Best is Surrey’s family weight management service. They are now running virtual sessions and welcoming referrals.