Cornwall Schools’ Wellbeing Hub Newsletter 22nd November 2024

Friday 22nd November 2024

Welcome to the Wellbeing Newsletter

Part 1 - Training & Events

 

Welcome to the Wellbeing Newsletter

 

Prominent this week is the release of Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index 2024. 

This year’s Teacher Wellbeing Index includes new insights on the impact of pupil and parent behaviour on staff morale and wellbeing. Staff are increasingly experiencing challenging behaviour across the school and college community, which is negatively affecting their mental health.

• 82% of the workforce who told us that challenging behaviour by pupils and students had increased, said this negatively affected their mental health and wellbeing.
• 70% who report a similar increase in challenging interactions with parents said it had the same effect on their mental health.
• 84% of staff who told us that that verbal or physical abuse by pupils or students has increased believe it is due to a lack of provision for students’ physical, emotional, and mental health needs.

Sinéad Mc Brearty, Education Support CEO said:
“Disturbingly high rates of stress, anxiety, and burnout continue to affect education staff, exacerbated by pupil and parent behaviour, and a lack of support for students from public services. The impact on teachers’ mental health is profound, and this must change. These issues point to deeper societal problems that extend beyond our schools and colleges."

The continuing strain on teachers (and all school staff) combined with the increasing struggles of children and young people is a potent mix that doesn’t need a few ‘bon mots’ from us. 

What is important is that all of us, in schools and beyond, don’t let ourselves be drawn into the false dichotomy that is being created by some commentators around ‘behaviourist’ vs ‘relational’ approaches. It is not an ‘either / or’. Rather, let’s focus on looking at how we can work together to foster a feeling of safety / a sense of belonging for ALL in our school communities. There’s so much more that’s needed but it makes for a reassuring and positive first step? 

 

Don’t forget you can now access this and previous newsletters on the website

 

Upcoming Training 

Find details of all our training including on-demand interactive modules

Highlights:

• Karen Treisman Webinars - On-demand access 
• FREE wellbeing content for all staff / parents with Pooky Knightsmith’s Creative Education Platform

Details below...

Karen Treisman webinars and resources

A limited number of licences for Karen Treisman webinars and resources designed as CPD modules for small groups of 3-20 people are available for free to Cornwall schools and settings. 

Click here to find out more and sign up for the webinars 

Including these super characters…

 

Our Safeguarding Children Partnership (OSCP)

Sexting Safeguarding Training

A two hour session supporting you to deal with safeguarding issues related to youth sexual image sharing, sometimes referred to as ‘sexting’.  The session will cover:

• The law governing youth sexual image sharing, including official police responses to consensual image sharing between minors.
• The problems associated with using scare tactics, including preventing disclosure and spreading inaccurate information.
• The best way to respond to aggravated sexting incidents using the harm reduction approach.

This training is delivered as part of the Headstart Digital Resilience offer.

Dates available September 2024 - June 2025.  Book your place here

More Information from OSCP

 

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 and MH and wellbeing (with more to come) 

We’ve pulled together some example pathways and themed content for you to explore. 

Check out our suggestions for:

Staff

Staff wellbeing, Anxiety, Whole School Approaches 

Parents and carers

Helping children learn coping skills and strategies, anxiety, exams 

www.headstartkernow.org.uk/creative-education/

Creative Education Content Exploration

Sign up for parents     Sign up for staff

Here are some examples of existing content and new additions to give a flavour of what’s available when you take advantage of our FREE access: 

 

Other Training coming up

Education Support

Building better parent-teacher relationships, 28th November 

Join us on for an insightful webinar where we will explore how to build and nurture healthy teacher-parent relationships.

Establishing and maintaining positive working relationships with parents and teachers is central to ensuring a child’s success.

However teachers and education staff recently told us they’ve seen a change in behaviour from parents and guardians.

Book your place (free) 

Motional 

FREE Webinar: 10 Practical Steps to Support School Attendance

Tuesday 26th November 12pm – 1pm

Learn actionable strategies for improving attendance in your school.

Register here

 

Anna Freud Centre

School Attendance and Mental Wellbeing: Full day (cost involved) 

Join us - for the first time ever online - to learn about the emotional, wellbeing and mental health-related causes of school non-attendance, the perspectives of children and families, and how to support children in school.

Book here

 

The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health

New webinars on Trauma

 

28 January 2025 9am UK - Trauma Aware Education

Dr. Judith Howard and Dr. Lyra L’Estrange

During this presentation, the QUT Trauma-Aware Education Team share insights and practical ways to provide quality trauma-aware education, develop leadership capacity, promote trauma-informed pedagogy, and enhance trauma-aware education knowledge and practice through research and conferences.

Free for ACAMH Members, £5 for ACAMH Learn Account holders and Non-Members

Book now: https://www.acamh.org/event/trauma-aware-education/

11 February 2025 5pm UK - Story Stems – a window into a child’s internal world

This webinar is presented by Dr. Saul Hillman and Gabrielle Lee. It will cover the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) and its use as an assessment of a child’s attachment and internal representations. The webinar will outline the development and theoretical context of the assessment, illustrate with case examples of children’s stories, discuss its clinical applications, and review research evidence on its usefulness in high risk populations including adopted children.

Free for ACAMH Members, £5 for ACAMH Learn Account holders and Non-Members

Book now: https://www.acamh.org/event/story-stems/

---

 

Part 2 - News / Resources / Updates

 

School Mental Health Leads

Time is running out! If you’ve not claimed the DfE grant (or need to get a second grant to train another member of staff to replace a SMHL who’s left) you must apply for a grant by 31st December 2024 and then be signed up to a course starting before / on 31st March 2025. 

As of today (22/11) there are 39 days left to apply for the grant.

More information on the DfE website

 

Cornwall Youth Council Manifesto 2024 – 2026

Have you heard about our fabulous Youth Council? The are doing an excellent job of making sure the voice of YP across Cornwall are heard and they are already making a huge difference in the council and beyond. 

There are opportunities for young people aged 11 -25 to take part: Find out more

They have just released their Manifesto for 2024-2026 which is focusing on:

• safety for young people for both physical and mental health
• increased opportunities for leisure and wellbeing

 

Start Now Young People’s website Refresh – young people wanted!

Over the next couple of months we are going to be refreshing the Start Now website. The site was created by young people, for young people in Cornwall and is a popular, well regarded resource.

It’s time for a refresh and we’d like to ensure young people are ‘front and centre’ of the review. 

The Youth Council are involved and excited about the potential and we want to hear from young people more widely to

• review existing content / identify gaps
• develop new content 
• helping with design elements 
• provide comment / insight as the work develops 

So far – we are talking about:

• Splitting the site into 2 age groups 
• Having a chatbot to help navigate content. 

If you know of any YP (Y5/6 and above) who would like to be involved – we can offer a quick introduction to the project in school (over a lunchtime / after school) and then make arrangements for them to take part remotely and via face-to-face sessions locally out of school time.

More information here

And there is more information on the website (where we’ll also be adding updates etc.) 

 

Pooky Knightsmith – ‘Comfort Audit’

The Comfort Audit is designed to help you see your classroom (or other space) through the eyes of a student who struggles with sensory processing. (inc. Autistic or ADHD students). 

The idea is simple: step into your students' shoes and notice what they might see, hear, feel, and smell. This can be a really eye-opening exercise, especially if you focus on imagining the experience of a specific student. Even better, try doing it with a colleague or, bring an actual student along (their feedback can be brutally honest but so valuable).

Pooky also has an excellent list of resources (including slides she used in a recent keynote on ADHD) and so much more on her website:

www.pookyknightsmith.com

Download PDF

 

Have you met Awesome Archie?

Supporting classroom ‘neuroclusivity’ via FREE training / support and resources

Visit the Awesome Archie website for more information.

 

Barnardos Wellbeing Advent Calendar

Countdown to Christmas day in a fun, interactive, and engaging way. Support children in building emotional literacy skills, resilience, and positive coping strategies.

As you countdown to Christmas day, open the digital calendar, click on one page per day to see what's behind each door!

See the calendar and additional resources here

 

Healthy Cornwall Healthy Schools Toolkit

A super new toolkit has been launched to help schools across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly boost the health and wellbeing of pupils and their families. 

The Healthy Schools Toolkit has been developed by Healthy Cornwall and a range of partner organisations and can be accessed here: Healthy Schools Toolkit - Healthy Cornwall 

It is designed to support all education settings, including our special schools and home education community. 

The toolkit focuses on six key areas, giving useful ideas, tools, links, activities and lesson plans to support each one. 

We are delighted to be supporting the EHWB elements of the Toolkit. 

You can find our links / resources here

 

Social and Emotional Learning 

Social and Emotional Learning for Every Child: Why SEL Matters

As concerns surrounding children’s mental health continue to grow, the role schools can play in supporting children’s mental health is receiving more attention. Universal, school-based interventions known as “Social and emotional learning” (SEL) interventions, delivered to all children, are a cost-effective and non-stigmatising approach to supporting wellbeing and healthy child development. These interventions aim to prevent the onset of poor mental health and reduce unwanted behaviours, such as bullying.

Read more on the blog (excellent read) 

 

Report Remove - Childline

Childline has built a new tool designed to aid subjects of online harassment, such sharing of images. gain back control of their images and their internet life. 

Please click on the link below: 

https://www.childline.org.uk/info-advice/bullying-abuse-safety/online-mobile-safety/report-remove

 

The Wholehearted School Counselling Hub

One of our favourite sites for engaging and effective tools to support social and emotional wellbeing in schools is Wholehearted School Counselling. 

If you sign up to the newsletter you can access a superb range of free resources / brilliant blog posts and even more fab resources to buy at low cost. 

Everyday this week, Anita, is sharing 5 super resources – which are well worth signing up for alone. Well worth a look. 

 

Empathy Lab – November is Empathy Action Month

What is Empathy Action Month?

Social action is an important part of empathy. When we take time to understand other people’s feelings and experiences, it spurs us on to act.

In other words, we put empathy into action. That means everyone coming together to improve each other’s lives and solve problems that are facing their communities. This could be as small as actively listening to one another or as big as a whole-school litter pick.

Every November, we help young people focus on ways to make a difference.

We want to encourage everyone to make every day an Empathy Day, and to keep taking steps to build a better, more empathetic world.

Download a Free Guide

 

Wellbeing Book Club Review

Finn Jones Was Here by Simon James Green illustrated Jennifer Jamieson

Twelve-year-old Eric’s best friend, Finn Jones, the world’s biggest prankster, has died. Eric is at his funeral. Only, Eric knows that Finn hasn’t really died. This is just another prank, isn’t it? The reason Eric knows this is because he’s had messages from Finn. One was to wear a unicorn onesie to the funeral. Though it seems no one else got this message… Classic Finn. 

Now Eric’s getting instructions from beyond the grave, and he’s embracing them enthusiastically, hoping against hope that he’ll find Finn at the end of it all.

From digging up his mum’s beloved lawn to getting his hair dyed, Finn is getting Eric into all sorts of scrapes – but there is joy and adventure to be had too. Finn has it all planned. But could he really have out-pranked everyone and still be alive?

This is a very funny and touching book about a young boy trying to come to terms with his grief over losing his best friend. The structure of the story in which Eric follows a series of clues left by Finn before he died make this an engaging and humorous read.

There are some sad moments too which are beautifully done (the book has been endorsed by Child Bereavement UK). The ultimate message is about seizing life and making every second count.

Want to find out more about our passion for books and wellbeing? Looking for specific books for staff / parents and carers / children? Visit our wellbeing book club. 

 

New approach to measuring pupil wellbeing:

free survey resources and guidance

CORC has launched a suite of free Wellbeing Measurement for Schools (WMfS) resources.

These have been developed to support schools to design their own questionnaires and surveys to understand more about the wellbeing of the pupils in their schools. 

The resource includes tried and tested sets of questions covering five broad areas of wellbeing, each with various questionnaires to choose from, and a comprehensive step-by-step guide and additional resources. The five areas are:

1. Emotional health 
2. Emotional strengths and skills 
3. Relationships 
4. School life 
5. Help and support 

Please visit the Measuring pupil wellbeing pages to download these new modular surveys and our step-by-step guides. 

• Measuring staff wellbeing 
• Support for schools 
• Measuring wellbeing in colleges 
• Measuring wellbeing in the early years 

The resources will help schools to better understand their pupil’s wellbeing. CORC’s approach gives schools the flexibility to focus on what is important to them with the rigour that comes from using validated questionnaires. 

Visit For Schools (corc.uk.net)

We love this. It provides schools and settings with accessible and reliable tools to use for free. A brilliant resource for schools.

 

Health Protection Outbreak Management Information for education settings

Our colleagues in the Public Health Team have asked us to share the following:

As we move towards the season of winter bugs, we wanted to share some valuable resources that can help you to prevent or manage cases and outbreaks of infectious diseases in your setting. Please do share the following links with whoever manages absences/exclusions in your setting.

• A-Z of managing specific infectious diseases - GOV.UK This useful guide provides a quick snapshot of what you can do to prevent and manage cases and outbreaks of common infectious diseases such as chickenpox, hand, foot and mouth, ring worm and lots more. It also guides you to when you should contact your local Health Protection Team. Please have a read of the A-Z before contacting us. 
• Exclusions Table: Health protection in education and childcare settings – this useful table can be printed out for use by your reception team and for parents and carers to see.
• Diarrhoea and Vomiting Action Card – a useful checklist if you have an outbreak of D&V in your setting.
• Respiratory Infection Action Card - a useful checklist for when you have cases of acute respiratory infections such as COVID or flu, but can also come in useful for general coughs and cold that spread quickly and can still make you feel quite ill. 

Other Resources

• POSTER - Managing case of infectious diseases in schools and other childcare settings
• POSTER – Should I keep my child off school? 
• BLOG - A parent’s guide to keeping kids healthy this school year – UK Health Security Agency

 

Website update

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. 

Have a look and let us know what you think!