Cornwall Schools’ Wellbeing Hub Newsletter 14th March 2025
Friday 14th March 2025
Welcome to the Wellbeing Newsletter
Part 1 - Training & Events
Welcome to the Wellbeing Newsletter
Recently the Anna Freud centre released the findings of the Education for Wellbeing study.
Education for Wellbeing was a large-scale research programme, funded by the Department for Education, involving two randomised control trials. They evaluated a range of mental health and wellbeing interventions being delivered in primary and secondary schools. The aim was to examine the impact of these approaches on children and young people’s mental health. The programme ran between 2018 and 2024. Across England, 32,655 pupils across 513 schools participated in Education for Wellbeing.
There were five interventions included in the study and one of them, Strategies for Safety and Wellbeing (SSW) was shown to be effective in both primary and secondary schools. This is particularly pleasing news as SSW is based on the Protective Behaviours process which forms part of our Whole School, trauma informed, relational Approach to wellbeing and underlines the importance of safety – emotional, physical, social, cognitive, psychological – at the heart of wellbeing, belonging and learning.
Following the results the DfE and Anna Freud are planning to roll out training to support school staff in both primary / secondary. In the meantime, we will be including SSW as part of the PBs training – join us at the next face to face training taking place on the 9th and 16th May where we will also share the SSW training materials.
Don’t forget you can now access this and previous newsletters on the website
Wellbeing Training with Headstart Kernow
Find details of all our training including on-demand interactive modules
Current:
- Last chance to book ‘Inside I’m Hurting’. (Supporting the pupil who has experienced significant relational traumas and losses) 21st March – 09.00 to 15.30
This training is suitable for a wide range of professionals and parents/carers who are interested in understanding how to settle a troubled pupil to learn within the education context. It is intended to inspire those who attend, enabling them to realize that they can all contribute and make a difference whatever their role or responsibility.
- SPACE Combined (Parent & Carers and Children & Young People) 3-day Facilitator Training 3-day (all day) online training | Monday 12th, Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th May 2025
- A range of Karen Treisman Webinars - On-demand access Limited number of licences.
- FREE wellbeing content for all staff /governors / parents with Pooky Knightsmith’s Creative Education Platform (see below)
Have you joined the Headstart Kernow Creative Education membership yet?
Offering full and free access to a huge range of online, on-demand content for all school staff, governors and a dedicated membership for parents and carers.
Plus access to Live Networks for safeguarding, MH Leads and Staff Wellbeing (with more to come)
www.headstartkernow.org.uk/creative-education/
Live MH Leads Network
The most recent session of the network, Transitioning from Year 6 to Year 7 is now available to view. Just join our membership and access and all past / future network sessions for free.
Featured content for members:
Supporting Staff Wellbeing in Schools and Colleges – Staff Wellbeing Survey tool
Creative Education are launching an exciting new online tool to make it really easy for you to send wellbeing surveys to your staff and analyse the results.
Members can get early access - before it becomes more widely available.
Join our membership today (free) and you can access the survey tool.
Download our updated information fliers for:
External Training
Anna Freud: FREE webinar for secondary schools: supporting students with low mood and anxiety
This term, our Schools and Colleges Early Support Service team are hosting a free webinar to help you provide early support to secondary school and college students aged 11-25 with anxiety and low mood.
Join us to develop your understanding of universal and targeted support and learn to identify early signs of wellbeing issues. Sign up to explore:
- how to embed a culture of wellbeing across your whole community
- the importance of early intervention
- the risk factors, signs and symptoms of emerging mental health issues
- how to support students experiencing common mental health difficulties
- how to identify when targeted support might be needed and how to access it
- how our clinical support service can support your whole school or college.
Wednesday 26 March
16:00–17:00
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Part 2 - News / Resources / Updates
Wellbeing Book of the Week
Cheeky Worries
Patrick Davey and Anna Smith, illustrated by Anne Wilson
The absolutely brilliant Charlie Waller Book Club free book this term was Cheeky Worries and we were delighted to receive our copy of this delightful and thoughtful story.
Cheeky Worries is the story of one boy’s journey to accept and understand his worries so that he can express what he is feeling and keep doing the things he loves.
He is not alone on this journey and is aided by the wise owl who helps Finn recognise a worry, label it, verbalise it and manage it himself. Finn learns it is normal to have worries but we can choose how we respond to them. As the owl takes off to support another little worrier she helps Finn realise that no matter how big or small we are, we all have cheeky worries…
The book has an excellent pedigree having been written by a consultant psychiatrist and a psychologist. It is accompanied by a guide to the book for parents.
Highly recommended for KS1.
New addition to the resources we offer:
The Strange and Curious Guide to Anger by Sally Donovan
This super follow up to the wonderful ‘The Strange and Curious to Trauma’ is just as bizarre, funny, moving and ultimately reassuring. It's perfect for children (and adults!) to learn how anger affects us, what happens when we get angry and what we can do about it.
Digital Resilience Tools and Resources
As part of our overall website refresh, we’ve improved the digital resilience tools / resources and added some new ones. There are tools for professional, parents and carers and young people themselves. Recent additions include:
- SEND Digital Resilience Guidance
- Was that OK? tool for young people
- Podcast Series for young people
Explore these and all the digital resilience resources
Anna Freud Centre - Neurodiversity Celebration Week (17th – 23rd March 2025)
Neurodiversity Celebration Week is an ideal opportunity for pupils and staff to learn more about, and celebrate, neurodiversity.
The Anna Freud Centre has produced a toolkit for primary and secondary schools
Co-Regulation Strategies to Soothe, Support, and Strengthen.
Co-regulation is the foundation of emotional support—when we stay calm, we help children navigate their emotions too. This guide is packed with practical, easy-to-use strategies to support children during moments of distress. It breaks co-regulation down into clear, actionable approaches, helping you feel confident in soothing, supporting, and strengthening emotional resilience.
Inside, you’ll find:
- Simple, effective co-regulation strategies for different situations
- Breathing, grounding, movement, and creative expression activities
- Guidance on modelling calm and adapting support to individual needs
Find this and other really helpful resources at www.pookyknightsmith.com
From the PSHE Association: - Introducing PSHE Association School Plus membership
School plus is the only subscription you need to lead safe and effective PSHE education in your school, giving you and your colleagues full access to:
✔️ Our new on-demand CPD training library
✔️ Exclusive live webinars & networking opportunities throughout the year
✔️ Practical 'quick tips for classroom practice' videos to support your teaching
This is in addition to all of the standard benefits of schools membership, including access to all our guidance and resources (covering the full curriculum) and personalised support from our Subject Specialists.
Managing Eating Problems in Schools Updated Guidance
This excellent Guidance / Toolkit has been updated by author Dr Lynette Rentoul
You can download the new version and watch a webinar given by Dr Rentoul based on the guidance
Supporting children through change and transitions
Article in Headteacher Update by Pooky Knightsmith
Transitions and change are part of primary school life, but there are lots of little things we can do to support children who might be anxious or worried.
Young Minds - Support a young person who is going through grief or loss
YM have a new grief and loss guide co-produced with young people
It’ll help you understand grief from a young person’s perspective and start tough conversations about loss.
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/professional/resources/support-with-grief-and-loss/
Behind the Screen - Childline
Childline’s new ‘Behind the Screen’ campaign, seeks to raise awareness of the sexually coerced extortion of boys and young men. In particular it seeks to address the extortion of nudes from this group via blackmail, in relation to nudes exchanged and then saved by the extorter. All young people should be able to feel safe to seek support for whatever afflicts them. Childline seeks to provide that service, and to act as a conduit for advice and support. The campaign has specifically been designed for boys and young men, to let them know its ok to reach out and that a place for their concerns exists at Childline. In line with this aim, they have produced a supporting guide to accompany their ‘Behind the Screen’ campaign. If interested please follow the link below:
https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/sfzndfgn/childline-behind-the-screen-pdf-guide.pdf
Life Lessons – new primary age offer / resources (cost involved)
Life Lessons will be expanding to offer a primary PSHE curriculum! We have had amazing feedback from our secondary partner schools and look forward to bringing our unique curriculum to primary schools who will benefit from a peer led approach to PSHE.
To better explain our new offering we are hosting a primary event:
Tuesday 18th March
3.30pm - 4.30pm
Online webinar
Save your spot now https://lifelessons.co.uk/event/primary-event/
Empathy Lab – Reading for Empathy Collection 2025 – Just released
The latest #ReadforEmpathy collection is here.
Jump into someone else's story with a diverse collection of empathy-rich texts, from picture books to non-fiction to graphic novels, written and illustrated by leading authors and illustrators. The 2025 collection is a fantastic resource to help grow an empathy-educated generation…
Primary Collection (pdf)
Secondary Collection (pdf)
We’ve come across some of these books already and they are superb. For example, the lovely “The Grand Hotel of Feelings”; The powerful and moving “The Wrong Shoes” and “Bird Boy”; The laugh out loud and hopeful “Keedie”.
Check out www.empathylab.uk for details of training and events coming up in 2025.
Register Now for the Empathy Day Festival 2nd – 12th June 2025
BBC wellbeing series for Children and Young People denied or restricted from accessing education (DARS)
Dars has produced a video helping children to deal with stress. It is aimed particularly at children and young people growing up in conflict zones. The video introduces what stress can feel like and provides some simple tools to help relaxation and stress reduction.
Watch the video: How to deal with stress
Explore the series: BBC Dars
Anna Freud Centre - Neurodiversity Celebration Week toolkit
Whole Hearted School Counselling – Latest Blog
The latest blog in this excellent series is about ‘Friendship dramas’
Something that is undoubtedly happening in every school possibly everyday.
The blog offers plenty of ideas for children and young people to resolve issues themselves and to avoid issues in the future.
VapeANON
VapeANON.com lets young people share information about shops selling vapes to children - and it’s entirely anonymous.
Created by Cornwall Council Trading Standards in response to concerns raised by young people at our Children’s Rights Annual Conversation, VapeANON enables young people to pass on information anonymously to Cornwall’s Trading Standards team about shops that are breaking the law by selling vapes to under 18s.
One of the young people who took part in the Annual Conversation said:
“Whilst working with other young people to create an action plan to address the issue of young people vaping at the Annual Conversation we all discovered that most of us knew at least one person who had bought a vape illegally. We all felt like something had to be done to prevent more young people accessing vapes so I’m very proud that Trading Standards listened to the concerns of the young people and are working to combat this issue."
Have you visited our new www.headstartkernow.org.uk website yet?
We are delighted to let you know that our refreshed and redesigned website went live recently. We made it simpler to find what you need as professionals supporting children and families need as well adding a new, more prominent area for parents and carers.