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Mental Health and Wellbeing
At Valley Invicta Primary School at Leybourne Chase, we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community (children, staff, parents and carers), and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives in just the same way as physical health.
In September 2019, we became a HeadStart School. HeadStart Kent is part of Kent County Council’s Early Help and Preventative Services and aims to help young people cope better when faced with difficult circumstances in their lives, preventing them from experiencing common mental health problems. The programme is funded by The Big Lottery Fund to provide the resources to develop approaches that support young people to develop their own resilience to cope with the everyday pressures they may face throughout their lives. HeadStart Kent aims to make changes through schools, families and within communities and has been designed with young people at its heart.
HeadStart Kent’s mission statement is: “by 2020 Kent young people and their families will have improved resilience, by developing their knowledge and lifelong skills to maximise their own and their peers’ emotional health and wellbeing; so navigate their way to support when needed in ways which work for them.” Young people have been clear on what they need to support their mental wellbeing, and HeadStart aims to focus on building a sustainable system where every young person in Kent will be able to say with confidence:
- People around me understand wellbeing and how to promote it
- My overall wellbeing is not impacted by the pressure to achieve and to be perfect
- There is always someone for me to talk to.
In December 2019, we were recognised for the work that we have done in school to promote children’s wellbeing, by being the first primary school in Kent to be awarded the “School’s Award for Resilience and Wellbeing”. The award was presented to staff and children from the school steering group, by Jo Comer, the Project Officer from Kent County Council’s HeadStart Kent Programme, on Wednesday 11 December 2019. We have since been re-accredited with this award in December 2021.
Throughout the academic year 2022/23, we worked towards the National Wellbeing Award - a programme developed to support schools in ensuring that wellbeing is a priority in their setting. In July 2023, we achieved the Gold award for this programme for the work that we had done to raise the profile of wellbeing in our setting. Comments from the award include
"Leybourne Chase puts children at the centre with a range of responsibilities where children are involved in supporting each other."
"The school has a stable staff with ‘trusted adults’ remaining in post which gives children confidence and reflects that staff wellbeing is also a priority."
"Wellbeing and respectful relationships are at the heart of the school curriculum and ethos."
![GOLD Whole School award logo 2023[89]](https://cb-leybourne.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/asset_image/2_1322_s.jpg)
