Wellbeing

Vision Statement 

At King Ethelbert School we recognise the importance of emotional wellbeing amongst our school community.  We are committed to providing a healthy and caring environment that promotes a positive culture, where students, staff and parents feel comfortable to speak about their mental health and feel supported.  When individuals have a sense of wellbeing they perform better and have happier lives.  Our focus is on supporting a positive long-term culture of mental health and embedding an ethos within King Ethelbert School where mental health is regarded as the responsibility for all. We aim to do this by:  

● Providing clear leadership and management in relation to wellbeing.

● Ensuring that actions lead to long-term, sustainable improvements in the health and wellbeing of the school community.

● Creating a positive school culture which requires a whole-school approach that is led from the whole community.

● Providing training and signposting to help staff and students recognise ways of promoting positive wellbeing and also how to recognise mental health concerns in themselves and others.

● Providing support and understanding for promoting positive mental health through our ‘Wellbeing Hubs’. 

Staff Wellbeing Policy

Well­be­ing Award for School                       

We recently achieved the ‘Well­be­ing Award for Schools’ to fur­ther develop our work to pro­mote pos­i­tive well­be­ing and men­tal health for the whole school com­mu­nity and gain accred­i­ta­tion for the work that we have already done. The key fea­tures of a whole-​school approach form the basis of the award, and pro­vides the school with a bench­mark against best prac­tice in which to test itself.
 

There are eight evidence-​based objec­tives, which schools must meet to achieve within the Well­be­ing Award Frame­work. The school was also assessed by an exter­nal advi­sor who confirmed that we have met the criteria.

The eight objec­tives are:-

Objec­tive 1 – The school is com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing and pro­tect­ing emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health by achiev­ing the Well­be­ing Award for Schools.

Objec­tive 2 – 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.

Objec­tive 3 – The school has a pos­i­tive cul­ture which regards emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health as the respon­si­bil­ity of all.

Objec­tive 4 – The school actively pro­motes staff emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health.

Objec­tive 5 – The school pri­ori­tises pro­fes­sional learn­ing and staff devel­op­ment on emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health.

Objec­tive 6 – The school under­stands the dif­fer­ent types of emo­tional and men­tal health needs across the school and has sys­tems in place to respond appropriately.

Objec­tive 7 – The school actively seeks the ongo­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of the whole-​school com­mu­nity in its approach to emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health.

Objec­tive 8 – The school works in part­ner­ships with other schools, agen­cies and avail­able spe­cial­ist ser­vices to sup­port emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health.

There are four key prin­ci­ples dri­ving the ideas and rec­om­men­da­tions behind the award:

1. Emo­tional well­be­ing and men­tal health are a con­tin­uum. Related issues can range from pos­i­tive atti­tudes and behav­iour, through to expe­ri­ences of emo­tional dis­tress and men­tal disorder.
2. Schools already expe­ri­ence and man­age emo­tional issues on a daily basis; the objec­tive is to min­imise the impact of such issues and max­imise the effec­tive­ness of any responses.
3. Emo­tional well­be­ing cov­ers a range of dimen­sions, such as resilience, char­ac­ter build­ing, rela­tion­ships and self-​esteem, etc. Under­stand­ing both devel­op­men­tal and men­tal health aware­ness is critical.
4. Cre­at­ing a pos­i­tive school cul­ture requires a whole-​school approach that is led from the top while involv­ing all in the school community.

More infor­ma­tion about the award is avail­able here.

                                                https://www.mind.org.uk/
 

                         https://www.youngminds.org.uk/ 

       https://www.childline.org.uk/

                         https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre  

Wellbeing Award recognition for Secondary School in Birchington

King Ethelbert School in Birchington has been awarded ‘The Wellbeing Award for Schools’ for supporting the wellbeing and mental health of its school community.

The Wellbeing Award for Schools, which has been developed by the National Children’s Bureau and Optimus Education, recognises the outstanding work being done in schools to promote wellbeing and mental health within school communities across England.

King Ethelbert School embarked on the award process in 2021 and have since developed various ways in the school to help support both wellbeing and mental health in the school. This has included creating an action plan which then fed into a whole school strategy for improving the wellbeing of its students, staff and parents/carers, the introduction of ‘Student Wellbeing Ambassadors’ across the year groups in the school, and the creation of Wellbeing Hubs which are inclusive of staff, students and parents.  Following a rigorous verification process culminating in a one day inspection the school received the well deserved news that they had been successful in achieving this award.

The Department for Education and Ofsted have supported this approach, stressing that promoting good mental health is the responsibility of all the people who make up a school community; its staff and governors, parents and students, and partner organisations beyond the school gates.

The Wellbeing Award in-school Coordinator Charlie Barber said “We are absolutely delighted as we first embarked on the award process well over a year ago. The process initially involved us looking at the policies and procedures we had in place and to see if we could refine and build upon them to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our whole school community”.  This included the introduction of our amazing three ‘Wellbeing Hubs’ which are run by teams of staff, students and parents/carers within the school”. 

Headteacher, Tom Sellen said, ‘We are passionate about promoting the wellbeing and mental health of the students, staff and families at King Ethelbert School. The process enabled us to evaluate areas in which we were already doing this well, but also identify where we needed to improve. Gaining the award has been a rigorous but thoroughly worthwhile experience and Charlie Barber and her team have done a fantastic job.”