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Nurture and Well-being

We are striving to make nurture and well-being the bedrock of everything we do at Pattishall Primary School. We understand that children need to feel emotionally secure in order to learn effectively, and we work hard to equip all of our pupils with emotional literacy skills.

We are proud to have achieved a silver TAMHS award for promoting good mental health and have a host of interventions and support strategies avaliable for all learners.

We recognise that, at times, we all need a bit of emotional support and there will always be children and young people in schools facing life challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning. Some will require greater support than others. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists to support emotionally vulnerable children.

We are lucky enough to have a qualified Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) at Pattishall Primary School. Mrs Berry has been been trained by Educational Psychologists to plan and deliver programmes of support to pupils who are experiencing temporary or longer term additional emotional needs. The majority of ELSA work is delivered on an individual basis, but sometimes group work is more appropriate, especially in the areas of social and friendship skills. Sessions are fun, we use a range of activities such as: games, role-play or arts and craft. ELSA sessions take place in our very own 'ELSA room' which provides a calm, safe space for the child to feel supported and nurtured.

In ELSA we aim to provide support for a wide range of emotional needs:

Recognising emotions
    Self-esteem
    Social skills
    Friendship skills

Anger management
Loss and bereavement

Rainbow Club

We recognise that some of our pupils are not always emotionally ready to learn when they come to school and require an increased level of support for them to access the wider curriculum. For this reason, we offer a Nurture Group (Rainbow Club) for key pupils to support their social and emotional development.

Rainbow Club provides a modified curriculum in an environment based on the six principles of nurture which are as follows:

1. Children’s learning is understood developmentally.

2. The classroom offers a safe base.

3. The importance of nurture for the development of self-esteem.

4. Language is a vital means of communication.

5. All behaviour is communication.

6. The importance of transition in children’s lives

We aim to:

• Encourage the development of positive social relationships with both peers and adults.

• Provide opportunities to understand emotions and develop pupil’s self-worth, confidence, motivation, trust, self-esteem and adaptability.

• Provide a safe, calm and nurturing environment, alongside a programme of activities structured to the emotional, social and intellectual needs of each pupils, while keeping them in close contact with their base class.

• Support pupils to understand their behaviour and that behaviours generally have a consequence and to develop strategies to self-regulate emotions and anxieties.