Merton Park Primary School

Mental Health & Wellbeing

At Merton Park Primary School, we are committed to promoting positive mental health and well-being for all our students. We believe that mental health is just as important as physical health, and we aim to create an environment where every child feels supported, valued and respected.

We understand that children can experience a wide range of emotions and feelings, and we strive to provide a safe and nurturing space where they can express themselves freely. We promote positive relationships between students and staff and encourage open communication to help identify and address any concerns.

We believe in the importance of building resilience in our students, and we provide opportunities to develop coping strategies and problem-solving skills. We also prioritise self-care, encouraging children to take time for themselves and engage in activities that promote positive mental health and well-being.

At our school we:

  • help children to understand their emotions and feelings better through regular emotional check ins
  • help children feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
  • help children socially to form and maintain relationships
  • promote self-esteem and ensure children know that they are important
  • encourage children to be confident and ‘dare to be different’ and to take risks
  • help children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks
  • support the mental health and well-being of education staff by giving them the right emotional and practical support so they can, in turn, support their pupils

We promote a mentally healthy environment through:

  • promoting our school values and encouraging a sense of belonging
  • promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision-making
  • celebrating academic and non-academic achievements
  • providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
  • providing opportunities to reflect
  • participating in events such as Children’s Mental Health week
  • developing a positive dialogue between children, staff and parents and reducing the stigma that is associated with mental health and well-being
  • access to appropriate support that meets their needs

We pursue our aims through:

  • universal, whole school approaches
  • support for pupils going through recent difficulties including bereavement
  • specialised, targeted approaches aimed at pupils with more complex or long-term difficulties including attachment disorder
  • individualised interventions to support children’s mental health and well-being through programmes such as Drawing and Talking and ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistants)

Education Wellbeing Practitioner Service

At Merton Park Primary, we offer parent workshops through the EWPS: "We are the Wave 6 Merton Education Wellbeing Service. We are an early intervention service, set up to provide mental health support for families. We offer two programmes; both programmes consist of 6 to 8 sessions with parents and are FREE of charge (funded by the NHS). Sessions can take place at school or video call via MS TEAMS.

Education Wellbeing Application form- Primary

Online parent form for Education Wellbeing form

Emotional regulation guidance

Child anxiety programme:

This is for parents seeking support in managing their child’s anxieties. It’s aimed at children aged 4 – 11 and often feeling worried (e.g. shy, panicky or fearful of things such as separation, monsters, the dark, friends, school).

Anxiety Flyer

Challenging behaviours programme:

This is for parents seeking support in managing their child’s common behavioural difficulties (e.g. not following instructions, difficulties at bedtime, outbursts, tantrums, being rude). This programme is aimed at children aged 3 – 10 years.

These sessions aim to empower parents/guardians by helping them understand their child’s difficulties and by providing tools and coping strategies they can use with their child. We call this Guided Self-Help. This focuses on building confidence and resilience and involves trying techniques with your child at home."

Challenging Behaviour Flyer

If you are interested in this service, please contact Mr Knox or Mrs Hastings for more information.

Finding your feet webinars- support for children starting school.

Year 6 Worry Ninja 

Did you know that our NHS Education Wellbeing Service are running ‘Worry Ninja Workshops’ with our Year 6 Students this term? Wellbeing Practitioners will be running these workshops over three weeks with Y6 students. The sessions will develop children’s understanding of anxiety and teach them strategies for managing anxious thoughts and feelings. The sessions aim to build resilience and equip all children with tools to manage anxiety, particularly around secondary school transition and SATs.

The students will be given a booklet of the strategies, which they will take home after the final session. It will be helpful to ask your children what they did each week to help consolidate their learning, and to encourage them to practise the things they’ve learnt.

There will also be live online parent workshops, which will explain the anxiety management techniques your children will be learning in the Worry Ninja Workshops. They will also focus on how you can support your child’s confidence and help with any worries as they move to secondary school. The online workshops will be live with an opportunity to raise any questions you might have. Year 6 parents can sign up here:

Worry Ninja flyer for parents

Reducing Parental conflict resources

OnePlusOne provides evidence based resources that can be used by parents themselves or facilitated by practitioners to support reducing parental conflict.

There are 3 digital programmes available:  

Me, You and Baby Too  - helps new and expectant parents adapt to the changes that parenthood can have on their relationship

Arguing Better - helps raise awareness of parental conflict and its impact on children. It gives parents the skills to cope with stress together and manage their conflict more constructively.

Getting it right for Children - helps separating parents see how they are putting their children in the middle of their conflict. It helps parents to develop positive communication skills so that they can parent co-operatively and work out solutions together.

Parent link - https://www.oneplusone.org.uk/parent-resources-for-england 

For support on specific mental health needs:

For general information and support:

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