Mental Health and Wellbeing
On this page you will find information and links to help and support children and parents/carers in maintaining good mental health and wellbeing. It is always important to have ideas and support to enable us to look after ourselves and our children. We have added some links below, but if you are aware of any others that others in our community may find useful please let Alex Jarman know via the school office.
You can also view our mindfulness page here
Learners' Forum (the body formerly known as School council)
The Learners' Forum meets termly to express the children's views on a range of issues, many closely related to Mental Health and Wellbeing, but also education and how the children feel about their learning.
In the last term the Learners forum discussed the following:
- The children gave some excellent feedback on the changes to our Anti-Bullying policy. The feedback they gave was invaluable in helping the school construct a detailed policy that had the learners voice at its core. The policy is currently being reviewed before its implementation. The learners Forum approached this difficult issue with great maturity and feedback to their classmates what was discussed.
- The Learners Forum had an excellent opportunity to feedback the amazing work we have been doing around Climate Change in our Climate Mornings. They explained in a mature and intelligent way what each year group had been doing to Dr Verity Jones and Dr Lucy Wenham.
We look forward to carrying on the excellent work the learners forum does as we move into the next term in the academic year 2022-2023.
Bristol Healthy Schools Mental Health and Well Being Award
What we're doing:
As part of the school's commitment to improving well being and promoting good mental health, this page contains information about all the relevant stuff that's going on in school, both in and out of the classroom.
We will try to keep you updated with relevant curriculum information, for instance PE and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) as well as what's happening with the Family Support Team and the School Council. We have also set up a Mental Health and Well Being Action Team made up of staff, parents, governors and members of the wider community to promote our aims. And when we say action, we mean action! As a way to provide a structure to this increased emphasis on good mental health, Cotham Gardens Primary has started an application to gain the Bristol Healthy Schools Mental Health and Well Being Badge. We will keep you posted on how this is going. Finally, we will be adding useful links to the bottom of this page.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact one or indeed all of the following beautiful people:
- Alex Jarman- MHWB Lead & School Council
- Lucia - PSHE Lead
- Jane Gray or Beth Kerridge - Family Support
- Susie Lyons & Emily Marsh- PE Leads
The link governor with responsibility mental health and wellbeing is:
Imran Nazir- if you wish to contact Imran, please email the school office.
Many thanks,
Alex Jarman
Assistant Headteacher
Useful Links:
Like all schools, we are becoming increasingly conscious of the helpful role we can play in promoting the mental health of children, staff and families.
Parenting, although rewarding, is not always easy and sometimes can be really challenging. Luckily there is help out there. One resource that comes highly recommended by other schools and families is the website of the charity Young Minds who seek to promote the mental health and well-being of children and young people. They have a free helpline available for parents (0808 802 5544) which provides confidential expert advice.
Click below for a link to the Children's Wellbeing page in the Parenthub section of our website- lots of interesting and helpful things to be found here.
A website that features links to a variety of MHWB websites and resources is the www.happymaps.co.uk website.
Other useful resources can be found at:
Bristol Mental Health and Wellbeing
Also helpful is this page from the Mental Health Foundation's 'Make it Count' campaign.
Mental Health Foundation - resources for parents and caregivers
Parenting Courses on offer in Bristol:
Gingerbread, the charity supporting single parent families to live secure, happy and fulfilling lives:
Digital Wellbeing:
www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/hot-topics/digital-wellbeing
In June 2017 NHS Bristol Clinical Commissioning Group, in partnership with Bristol City Council, launched the Emotional Health & Wellbeing Online Directory. The Directory has been designed with the aim of providing a single, searchable source of information of different services and resources, including NHS commissioned providers such as CAMHS, Off The Record and www.kooth.com.