Social, Emotional and Mental Health

The area of Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs (SEMH) includes:

• Social and emotional functioning
• Well being
• The ability to self-regulate and behaviour
• Mental Health wellness

The 2015 SEND Code of Practice defines SEMH in the following way:

“Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways.  These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour.  These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained.  Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attachment disorder.”[1]

An increasing number of children and young people are experiencing Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties.  At Reinwood Infant and Nursery School we are committed to promoting and protecting all pupils’ and adults’ mental health and wellbeing throughout the culture of the school and curriculum.  We do this by offering a nurturing approach.  This helps us to prepare children for emotional ups and downs by teaching the necessary skills of perseverance and resilience.  As a result, children become more self-assured and ready to engage with life and learning.

The skills, knowledge and understanding needed by our children to keep themselves and others physically and mentally healthy and safe are included as part of our developmental PSHE curriculum.  This will hopefully give them the confidence to seek help, as needed, for themselves and others.  We will follow the PSHE Association Guidance[2] to ensure that we teach mental health and emotional wellbeing issues in a safe and sensitive manner which helps rather than harms.

For some children and young people, difficulties in their emotional and social development can mean that they require additional and different provision in order for them to achieve.  Therefore, some of our approaches will be targeted approaches aimed at individual children and/or small groups.

If you would like to know more, please read our ‘Mental Health and Wellbeing Policy’.

[1] ‘Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice 0-25 years’, Department for Education & Department for Health, 2015)

[2] Teacher Guidance: Preparing to teach about mental health and emotional wellbeing

Exploring these websites may be of interest to you:

Nurture Group Network

Engage in their Future

Place2Be

Young Minds

MindEd

Charlie Waller Memorial Trust

If you feel that your child is having problems at school due to Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties please contact Mrs N Conquest (Deputy Headteacher and Senior Mental Health Lead) or Miss P Whitworth (Nurture and Well-Being Manager).