As a school our caring ethos and environment has a major impact on the wellbeing of our staff and children. We clearly define our culture and vision, making it clear what behaviours, values and beliefs underpin it. We prioritise building a culture of trust where school staff and children feel valued, can be open about their health and wellbeing and know how to access support if they need it.

At Stone St Mary’s, we encourage a good level of health & wellbeing in a number of ways.

• Our vision and values are referred to throughout the day and are fully embedded within our learning environment. They are weaved into everything we do. We have created a culture of belonging.
• We have school expectations and class charters instead of school rules, which are referred to throughout the school day.
• We have a school council, we are working to requalify for the Wellbeing for Schools Award, promote active learning with our outdoor resources and teach active subscription, and run a range of extra active curriculum clubs. Our teachers also provide emotional support as mentors for our Year 6 pupils.
• In classes, we have worry boxes, emotional check ins, teach PHSE (personal, social and health education), complete mindfulness activities such as yoga, guided meditation, breathing exercises, and walk the daily mile.
• The school has year group pupil wellbeing ambassadors and a staff team to ensure that we continuously focus on the wellbeing of our school community. 
• We use BLP (building Learning Power) as a strategy to promote and value things such as resilience.
• We display wellbeing tips in the staff room for our staff with regular emails of new initiatives.
• We regularly talk about mental, physical and emotional health as part of our daily diet and routines as part of our class emotional check ins.
• The school has purchased additional online and book resources to support the children with their mental wellbeing after the pandemic.
• A healthy school is a happy school. Our aim is to help children to grow healthily, safely and responsibly and to become active citizens who do their bit for society and the environment. We aim to achieve this by educating children about the choices they have in respect of food, encouraging sugar swaps and having an active role in meal planning. The introduction of ‘The daily mile’ supports children’s physical and emotional health, which we encourage families to complete together. By giving children the tools to be healthy and happy, we are reducing inequalities and encouraging social inclusion for all pupils.

In every class, there are check ins for the children to express how they are feeling throughout the day. This encourages communication and expression of how we are feeling and to consider our next steps. Emotional check ins are based on the 'Zones of Regulation' framework. Further information on this system can be found on the website:

www.zonesofregulation.com