School Nurse
School Nurse
About Your School Nurse
School nurses provide confidential advice and health information. This advice is available to young people, their parents, carers and teachers. School nurses will help ensure children and young people stay fit and healthy.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
“Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.”
World Health Organisation. 2018
At Five Islands Academy we aim to promote good mental health and wellbeing for our whole community: students, staff, parents and carers.
We aim to develop protective factors by being a community in which all:
- are respected
- have a sense of belonging and feel safe
- are able to talk openly with trusted adults
- see good mental health as something to be valued and nurtured
We want all members of our community to:
- feel confident in themselves
- be able to express a range of emotions appropriately
- be able to make and maintain positive relationships with others
- cope with the challenges of everyday life
- manage times of stress and deal with change
- thrive and achieve
We aim to achieve this through:
- our PSHE JIGSAW curriculum
- having a caring and nurturing school ethos
- awareness raising (wellbeing assemblies, tips for good mental health)
- listening to our students
- having a caring and nurturing school ethos
- gaining insights via student voice
- working in partnership with parents/carers where there are concerns about mental health
- signposting sources of external help and advice
- making referrals and working with external agencies to provide additional support to those who need it
- recognising the importance of staff mental health and wellbeing.
- modelling healthy attitudes and habits
Who has mental health?
We all have mental health – some people call this emotional health or wellbeing.
What is mental health?
The World Health Organisation defines mental health as a state of wellbeing in which every individual achieves their potential, copes with the normal stresses of life, works productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to their community. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act.
Good mental health and wellbeing is just as important as good physical health. Like physical health, mental health can range across a spectrum from healthy to unwell; it can fluctuate on a daily basis and change over time.
Most children grow up mentally healthy, but surveys suggest that more children and young people have problems with their mental health today than 30 years ago. It is thought that this is probably because of changes in the way that we live now and how that affects the experience of growing up.
What helps?
- Things that can help keep children and young people mentally well include:
- being in good physical health, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise
- having time and the freedom to play indoors and outdoors
- being part of a family that gets along well most of the time
- going to a school that looks after the wellbeing of all its pupils
- taking part in local activities for young people
Other factors are also important, including:
- feeling loved, trusted, understood, valued and safe
- being interested in life and having opportunities to enjoy themselves
- being hopeful and optimistic
- being able to learn and having opportunities to succeed
- accepting who they are and recognising what they are good at
- having a sense of belonging in their family, school and community
- feeling they have some control over their own life
- having the strength to cope when something is wrong (resilience) and the ability to solve problems.
What happens in school?
In school, we teach children about what it means to have good mental health and wellbeing throughout our curriculum and daily practice.
Our PSHE curriculum focuses specifically on developing children’s social and emotional skills which can prevent poor mental health from developing and help all children cope effectively with setbacks and remain healthy. It is about helping children to understand and manage their thoughts, feelings and behaviour and build skills that help them to thrive, such as working in a team, persistence, and self-awareness.
