Leaders and school staff are united by the view that happy, secure and confident children learn best and all adults work together to champion strong emotional health and well-being.  We recognise that resilience comes from having high esteem, the willingness to improve and a drive to succeed.  

We want our children to be forward thinking and assertive whilst treasuring the core values of respect and tolerance. We actively encourage our children to have a voice and employ democratic approaches to all aspects of school life. Our schools exist for our children- their views and opinions matter and we want to work with them, and their families, to create an environment where very child can thrive.

Our school values, Care, Learn, Engage, Achieve, Reflect, encompass these beliefs and provide children with the opportunities to practise the knowledge and skills needed to develop the attributes, attitudes and values that enable positive mental health and well-being. Our values are at the heart of our federation, having been co-constructed by leaders, staff and stakeholders, and underpin our culture and ethos, as well as influencing and shaping curriculum design and pedagogy.

As part of our relationships and PSHE curriculum, our pupils are taught about mental health which is reinforced weekly during values assemblies. We measure the impact of this curriculum in the way our children respond to situations, feelings and events, and how they manage their friendships, relationships and conduct.  We are training to become a thrive school to deepen and widen our understanding of emotional development and well-being so that we can provide timely and appropriate support for individual or groups of children.  

Through cultural approaches, quality first teaching and specific interventions (as necessary) we promote positive mental health. Our aim is to raise children’s awareness of how experiences influence their thoughts and how responses are linked to these. We promote personal responsibility because we want to equip children with the knowledge and strategies to empower themselves and take charge of their lives.

We achieve this by:

• Teaching our children about their brains: this is based on the empowerment approach to enable our children to understand and take charge of their brains. We teach our children to understand their own thought processes- recognising their strengths, difficulties, needs and stressors and using this knowledge to build on strengths and manage difficulties positively. We foster the belief in every child that “they can” by teaching them to have confidence in their abilities to exert control over their motivation, behaviour and social environment which makes them feel capable (an expert problem solver). We promote self-advocacy, or the ability to positively represent their own views, needs, interests and concerns. To do this effectively, we know our children must be clear about what will help them to do well and they must be able to communicate their needs positively and confidently.
• Developing emotional intelligence: we want our children to understand, use and manage emotions in positive ways so they can communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. To be able to do so, children must recognise and understand their own emotions and those of people around them, and use this information to guide their responses. We also teach our children how to adjust their emotions to adapt to different situations.
• Our interactions with children: we allow children time to consciously practise working in ways to meet their needs positively and to manage their stressors. We prepare our children for situations so they can control their reactions to any difficulties that may arise. We understand children’s idiosyncrasies and know that some children require more support than others to be able to do this. We support children to problem solve and find solutions so they know how to meet their needs independently and give them opportunities to develop and use the skills needed to deal with stressors they encounter. We use a restorative approach when children react negatively to specific events, people or triggers using conversations and interventions to re-set children. Our assessments of behaviour are used to provide bespoke teaching - we aim to ‘keep children up’ in the management of their behaviour, so they can independently resolve conflict and facilitate healthy relationships and experiences, by intervening at the right time and in the right way. We want all children to become empowered and enabled, motivated by wanting to do the right thing for themselves and others.  
• Relationships: we develop positive unconditional relationships with our pupils and hold every child in high regard. These relationships have a clear set of expectations and, when behaviour prevents a child from meeting these expectations, steps are taken to repair what has gone wrong. Vitally, the relationship with the child remains the same: they continue to be held in high regard, even if adults are made to feel uncomfortable, agitated or annoyed, the relationship remains strong. Adults have a right to disapprove or to feel unhappy, but they are committed to maintaining a strong relationship and to support the child as they navigate their difficulties. We use this approach because relationships build brains and building and maintaining strong relationships with children is the adult’s responsibility.