Mental health and emotional wellbeing affect how you feel, think and act.  It is as important to look after your mental health, as it is to look after your physical health.

When Children have good Wellbeing it helps them to 

• Learn and explore the world. 
• Feel, express and manage positive and negative emotions 
• Form and maintain good relationships with others 
• Cope with, and manage, change, setbacks and uncertainty. 
• Develop and Thrive. 

When children look after their mental health and develop their coping skills it can help them to boost their resilience, self-esteem and confidence. It can also help them learn to settle themselves, feel calm, and engage positively with their learning. 

(Anna Freud https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/) 

There are several risk factors that can affect a person’s mental health including:

• Individual characteristics (i.e. temperament, communication difficulty, learning difficulties)
• Traumatic experiences (i.e. abuse, domestic violence, bullying, long term illness, bullying etc)
• Changes in families and relationships (i.e. separation, divorce, bereavement, loss)
• External factors (poverty, discrimination)

At Woodlands we value the mental health and wellbeing of all our young people and staff and endeavour to support this through several ways including.

• Having a safe positive environment in school which is supported by clear policies, procedures and ethos.
• Working on recognising sensations in the body, naming emotions and having the strategies and communication to help the young person cope and calm themselves. ‘Zones of Regulation’ is a programme of study that is used in Lower Formal to facilitate this.
• Developing social understanding through many tools such as comic strips, social scripts, social communication groups and reflective sessions.