Wellbeing Award

Here at St Olave’s Prep School, we value the Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health of all our students and staff.

St Olave’s Prep School has been awarded the Wellbeing Award for Schools, highlighting the excellent pastoral care offered to pupils and staff at the School.

Provided by Optimus Education, the Wellbeing Award for Schools recognises the work that we do in supporting the wellbeing of the school community and in promoting the understanding about mental health issues to reduce the stigma surrounding them in wider society.

The award, developed in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), focuses on ensuring that effective practices and provisions are in place to support and promote emotional wellbeing and mental health. The aim is to change the long-term culture of schools, embedding an ethos where mental health is regarded as the responsibility of all.

The report noted that the commitment to children and young people helps them to thrive; that staff, parents and pupils’ are open to discussing mental health; and that every child is treated as an individual.

In gaining the award, St Olave’s Prep School is demonstrating the commitment to:

• Promoting mental health as part of school life
• Improving the emotional wellbeing of their staff and pupils
• Ensuring mental health problems are identified early and appropriate support provided
• Offering provision and interventions that matches the needs of its pupils and staff
• Engaging the whole-school community in the importance of mental health awareness
• Capturing the views of parents, pupils and teachers on mental health issues

The final report identified the following factors as strengths:

• The school culture really values mental health and wellbeing and promotes this for all members of the school community. All stakeholders identified that the headteacher has been central to driving this and promoting its importance.
• There are strong relationships, so that people know that they matter. There is a strong sense of being part of a team and belonging to the school evident among stakeholders.
• Leaders have been proactive in promoting work-life balance for staff by actively listening and making appropriate changes. Staff really value these.
• The Family Liaison Officer and Headteacher are on the gate every morning and open and available to all members of the school community.
• The school allotment provision is enhancing the wellbeing of all pupils and staff and forming valuable links with parents and the wider community. The school’s commitment to developing a teachers role to include supporting colleagues in its use will enable maximising its potential benefits.
• The school have developed their own programme of teaching about Learning Muscles using cuddly toys which has really engaged the children and given them the language to discuss their approaches to effective learning.
• The school provides a highly effective transition for their Year 6 pupils to prepare them for secondary school and outside the highly protective environment St. Olaves provides through a programme of training including Junior Citizens, work with TfL, first aid and drugs and alcohol awareness training.

The impacts of these factors were:

• The new school website provides high quality information to parents. It promotes the high status and importance to the school of MHW by its position on the front page. The school Twitter feed keeps information current and actively engages parents.
• Staff have felt very involved in the process and been encouraged to input their own ideas and needs into the bigger picture. This has encouraged significant discretionary effort.
• The school had a highly successful and enjoyable Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health week which really raised the status and profile of EWMH.
• The school has a highly visible Mental Health and Wellbeing board just inside the main door and produce a dedicated monthly newsletter to parents offering advice, tips and links.
• The school has become more outward looking both to its local community and in building school partnerships.
• There has been a focus on outside training and speakers for staff, parents and pupils which all groups have really enjoyed
• Everybody at the school is genuinely excited about future developments and opportunities.
• The school are currently developing an exciting allotment based project which has the potential to transform the lives of their pupils and the offer the school can provide to become a truly unique selling point.

We are already formulating our next steps in further enhancing our provision and improving on our current positive outcomes. The Award is reviewed in 2022 and we are looking to continue the process of development through to this date.

Please see our Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health information, signposting to local services and advice for parents.

Directory of Services

Wellbeing Strategy 19-20