Be Safe! Be Seen! Be Heard!

Headteacher

Thornbury Primary School

How does pupil voice support inclusion, diversity and mental health?

"Be Safe! Be Seen! Be Heard!" is the title of a poster displayed in every room at Thornbury Primary School and discussed with children every year. This is because one of the most important gifts we can give to children is their voice, and the will to use it, the feeling of self-worth that says someone will listen, someone does want to know, someone will help.

Building a mentally strong school is one of our key principles. Many mental health services are focussed on support for when mental health is suffering. Whilst this is important, as a society, are we spending enough time also thinking about the root causes of this and providing a preventative approach? We know that Adverse Childhood Experiences, impact on mental health, whilst protective factors, such as emotional resilience, strong friendships and networks, feeling loved and accepted also play a significant role in balancing up any negative experiences children may have had.

Animal Aces

We use our ‘Animal Aces’ to bring abstract concepts like culture, ethos, and values to life in meaningful ways for the children. Academic animals, such as the Connecting Spider, represent these ideas, while animals focused on wellbeing and social skills, like the Friendly Otter, support personal growth. The animals appeal directly to children, but also enable some challenging discussions, both in the curriculum and on a one-to-one basis, presented through a familiar and safe context. For example, when looking at the Truthful Toad, children might talk about white lies, and how peer pressure might lead one to not always be truthful.

‘I used to get upset when I couldn’t do my writing. I chose to make it my target and I’ve practised a lot and I have got better at it, so I am a Resilient Lion.’

Be Safe! Be seen! Be Heard! friendly otter, resilient lion

Time to listen

Other common strategies across the school are deeply embedded. For example, although most children are happy to share their thoughts and feelings openly, (and they do), all classrooms have worry boxes, so children have a way to seek adult support without having to raise anything in front of their peers.

Adults always make time to talk with any child who needs to. We give them tools to help them with these discussions such as pictures, vocabulary, dolls and other playthings, and symbolic forms of communication such as ‘widgets’. We also create individualised social stories, and some children have completely individualised ways of signalling they are seeking a conversation – traffic light cards, putting an item on the teacher’s keyboard, having a daily catch up, or keeping a journal to share every now and again.

Expertise on hand

We have a number of staff who are trained as Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs) and have a full caseload, groups for building social skills, and a Learning Mentor who works with children 1-1 and in groups, much of which is around understanding, naming and managing their emotions. We also work closely with other agencies to provide counselling and more specialist support.

Pupil voice in lessons

We use ‘narratives’ to make learning and life meaningful for the children. Our learning is all based around a journey theme – we need a destination, tools for the trip which we put in our metaphorical ‘rucksacks’, we plot out our ‘stepping stones’ through learning, and our ‘footprints’ show us what we have learned. We also know that the journey may face challenges and barriers, mountain tops and deep dark valleys, (The Learning Pit) where we need to understand that good learning is on the edge of the comfort zone, and if it’s too easy we probably aren’t learning. We need to accept that we may stray from the path and find new ways of doing things, that we may make mistakes, and these are often the best ways of learning. In other words, within a scaffolded and supportive culture, the children now embrace the uncomfortableness of learning and school life.

There are other ways that we can reduce anxiety in lessons. Visual timetables help to dissipate anxiety about the day ahead. In literacy and maths, we often use a ‘perfect practice’ model, where the lesson is virtually the same as the day before, with slight variation.

‘I used to worry about Literacy before but now I know what we are doing because we did it yesterday. It makes me feel a lot more confident.’

Teachers display speech bubbles in every classroom, color-coded as follows: red for "I don't understand/I need help," orange for "I get it to this bit, but then I don’t/ Could you explain again," and green for "I get it/ I'm feeling good/ I'm ready for the next challenge." Children know they can say these at any time, including when the teacher is talking.

class room colour coded presentation, be safe, be seen, be heard

Building a sense of self-worth and agency

Each class has its own 'Moments that Matter' book, where students add pictures and words related to topics discussed in PSHE, as well as things to celebrate from home, like a swimming certificate. All of this helps to build a class identity, and a feeling of shared goals and belonging.

Pupil leadership opportunities exist across the school, from jobs in the classroom, to those you have to apply for, for example – Play Leaders, Reading Buddies, and Sports Leaders. The older children who fulfil these roles plan and lead sports activities at lunchtime, organise their rotas, and independently organise ‘cover’ with other children if they have another responsibility such as a club, and might miss their duty. Children report being very proud of the roles they play, and that it has increased their confidence.

All our children receive First Aid training, learning how to put someone in the recovery position, stop bleeding, and practice calling an ambulance. Parents who have dealt with first aid emergencies have told us how calm their child was confident about what to do, rather than panicking. One for example, stopped their sibling bleeding, until a parent took over.

Developing Emotional Vocabulary and Coping Strategies

Building children’s vocabulary through scaling emotional words and building their own emotions glossaries enables children to talk in accurate and meaningful ways about their feelings, and helps us to scaffold and support them to reflect and build bridges, to acquire strategies such as breathing techniques to calm and regulate.

It is a school rule that any child, at any time can come and speak to the headteacher, or other staff member they name. When a child feeling sad comes to the headteacher to borrow a ‘Worry Puppy’ (or dinosaur) soft toy to keep with them for the day, the headteacher always takes time for a discussion, provides moral support and empathy, and considers whether the child needs additional support.

‘If I had any worries at school, I would tell a teacher or my friend. Our school has ‘worry puppies’ that you can borrow.’

We have also had a focus on greetings, to empower children in social situations. We have ‘scripted’ greetings, and talked about this in lessons, in circle times, and in assemblies:

  • Good morning, how are you?
  • I’m very well/ fine/ tired thank you, how are you?
  • Have you had a nice day etc?
  • Yes, thank you, have you?

Children now do this automatically, and report feeling greater confidence in doing so. This seems a small thing, but if this is enabling children to feel confident in social settings, to start a conversation, rather than being passive. It is also helping our children to be able to function in a more formal manner, where required; we are giving them power and agency for the future.

The role of leadership

All of this would not be possible without a whole school commitment, from the governors to every member of staff, from senior leaders’ strategic thinking, planning, and ensuring it is in place, to modelling supporting and guiding staff, as well as investing in comprehensive staff training at every layer of the organisation. It must be part of every decision and conversation, but only if we are all behind it. It is a carefully woven, understood, and consistent model, while also remaining supremely flexible. It requires a commitment to reflecting on and modifying practice, as well as staying informed by current thinking and good practice.

Our culture and ethos recognize the value of giving staff agency, knowing that a mentally healthy and empowered staff will build a stronger school for the children.. Staff work in teams, there is a range of networks for them to share worries, and we have a large inclusion team, who often meet to problem solve, and support and advise staff. More experienced staff will often ‘script’ what might be a tricky conversation with a child, or model this for them.

From the moment a parent first makes contact with the school, we are giving a clear message – we are a caring and aspirational school. When we meet prospective parents, we spend over an hour just talking about our culture and ethos, how we do things, but more importantly, why we do things that way. We set out straight away how we build a strong work ethic, and resilience, by accepting negative emotions as part of life and learning and developing strategies to take children forwards, at all stages of their lives. One of our popular sayings is, ‘This is safe place to make mistakes’. This gives parents and children confidence.

Conclusion

To build a mentally strong school, with positive wellbeing, and values, every brick, every breath and every word, has to be considered. To empower children, we must have open and honest conversations. We need them to understand why they and others feel the way they do and how it affects them. We want them to feel part of a community where they are valued and have agency over their own lives. All of this contributes to raising children who have a sense of self-worth, feel included, and have stronger mental health and wellbeing.

A version of this text was originally published by TeachingTimes.com, and was part of our submission for our winning entry of the TES Mental Health Award 2023.

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