At Green Gates Academy, health and wellbeing is at the centre of our curriculum and is embedded throughout school life. Our pupils access a range of bespoke interventions and therapies: Drawing and Talking, Attachment Toolkit, Understanding Me, ABC Play Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Future Steps, Thrive, Massage in School Programme and more. “The Snug” room offers a safe space in school for pupils to access these interventions and therapy sessions. We also are a safe space to host a variety of external visitors who offer specialist support to our pupils, such as art therapy, CAMHs sessions, Harbour, Bridgeways, Prevent, Youth workers and a variety more!
As a Rights Respecting Gold School, we are passionate about ensuring our pupils have the best possible health, article 24. Pupils access weekly PSHE lessons, which have a sequential and spiral approach to teaching health and wellbeing. As well as this, we offer weekly mental health and wellbeing sessions which allow further opportunities for pupils to learn about health and wellbeing. These sessions have a focus on removing the stigma associated with mental health and skills and strategies to support health and wellbeing. Furthermore, Alliance continue to support Green Gates pupils with group or 1:1 sessions targeting low mood and anxiety. Pupils also access SMSC sessions once a week, to develop their awareness of the wider world around them.
Alongside these systems to support pupil health and wellbeing, we work cohesively with parents and carers. We know that collective working and strong relationships with parents and carers provide the best outcomes for our pupils. This is why we offer a range of support, training and advice sessions for parents and carers to empower them with the most up to date knowledge on how to support their child’s health and wellbeing.
Alliance hold parent and carer sessions on a fortnightly basis with a range of different focuses, which are planned to suit the needs of the pupils and the parents and carers. Moreover, our Parent Support Advisor (PSA) hosts parent and carer information sessions from a range of external visitors including the Family Hub, Main Project, Daisy Chain and Oral Health. We also host regular teaching and learning coffee mornings for parents and carers to access information regarding topics such as SATs, Little Wandle, Maths, RSHE, E-Safety and Reading. Building positive relationships with parents and carers is paramount, which is why we also offer parent and carer craft and bingo mornings. Our staff are commited to parent health and wellbeing and offer regular “check ins” to ensure parents and carers aren’t overwhelmed and are receiving the best support available. Our dedication to parent and carer partnerships has been recognised as we have achieved the Leading Parent Partnership Award for the 11th year!