Mental Health & Wellbeing

More than 1 in 10 primary school children aged five to 10 has an identifiable mental health condition – that’s around three children in every class.

While rates of mental ill health do increase as children get older, early intervention is key to giving young people the best start in life. Irlam Endowed realises that primary schools have a vital role to play in supporting children’s mental health – teaching them the skills they need to recognise and deal with their emotions, and helping those with difficulties get the support they need.

In every class, there is a colour monster book and colour monsters so the children can let staff know how they are feeling at the start of each day. Staff can speak to those children individually who are feeling sad or angry. Wellbeing lessons are incorporated as part of our PSHE lessons. These lessons guide our pupils through five different wellbeing strands: Discover, Take notice, Connect, Give, and Move.

As a whole school, we celebrate national wellbeing days. Our Wellbeing Warriors (part of the pupil governor team) set an action plan to support pupil and staff wellbeing throughout the year.

We have introduced a quiet space to Irlam Endowed; ‘The Retreat’ is a room where our pastoral worker works with small groups and individual children who have been identified as needing support with their emotions. Interventions that run here have been developed by the Primary Inclusion Team and Salford’s Educational Psychology Service.

The Retreat also runs a calm start for those children who find the start of the day difficult. Here our children can have breakfast and a calm start to the day before entering the classroom for registration.

As part of Salford Thrive In Education Schools offer Irlam Endowed have a weekly counsellor from Place 2 Be. Our designated counsellor takes children who need further support on a 1:1 basis. They also take a small group once a year to complete a program called ‘Journey of Hope.’ Here a group of eight children discuss different emotions each week.

Irlam Endowed also has a mentor from Salford Foundation who mentors five children from Year 5 and 6 to help children with their transition to secondary school. They have weekly sessions with their mentor including in the school holidays.

Irlam Endowed have staff who are Mental Health first aiders, who are trained regularly to have the skills and confidence to step in, offer first aid and guide them towards the support children need.