Horsham school receives the national Wellbeing Award for Schools

The Southwater Junior Academy has been working on increasing and improving its wellbeing support for children, particularly recognising those pupils who are struggling more than ever as a long-term effect of school lockdowns and COVID.

Headteacher, Rebecca Toogood said: “Working towards the award has helped us to focus on enhancing our positive culture, placing mental health and wellbeing at the very heart of school life.”

Alongside the dedicated work with the children, the school has been mindful of the increasing strains put on staff due to a lack of external services and support. Furthermore - seen much less frequently in other settings - the school has also focused its energies on supporting families and parents through their Family Link Worker, Tina Maxey, whose role includes delivering Parent Workshops and direct 1-2-1 work. Some of the fabulous parental feedback includes:

• “Learning that others are in the same situation is really helpful “• “Having new strategies to try is really good”• "Just to be able to talk to people who understand"• "Not to feel judged"• “Things feel more manageable, and I feel more in control”

SENCo and Inclusion Manager, Amy Rumble said; “We started working towards the award, not simply to achieve another certificate, but to recognise the excellent work that was already happening across the school. We opted for the advisor-led approach so we could learn from an expert and identify the gaps in our provision. We were lucky enough to be assigned a wonderful advisor who helped us throughout the 2-year process.”

Initially, the school met with their advisor who explained the 8 areas of the accreditation. The school completed a thorough self-audit and any gaps that were identified became the robust action plan. A Wellbeing Change Team was created which included staff, parents, pupils and a trustee representative. The Change team met regularly to review the action plan. Any new “Wellbeing at SJA” ideas were publicised through the school newsletter.

One new initiative included nominating a handful of children in each year group as “Kindness Ambassadors”. Part of their role is to share ideas in assembly about valuing kindness. Additionally, these children are able to issue rewards in the form of “Caught Being Kind” cards to other children when they observe random acts of kindness around the school. Examples may include a child including someone else in their game or a child helping someone else with their class work.

The impact of achieving this award has been wide ranging. In particular, it has served as a great acknowledgement of how hard the staff work across the school, which in turn has positively impacted on the level of high-quality support for pupils. Southwater Junior Academy is looking forward to working with pupils, parents, staff and trustees to continue this essential work on behalf of the whole school community.