EMOTIONALLY FRIENDLY SCHOOLS (EFS) AWARD
We are currently in the process of applying to achieve an Emotionally Friendly School Status.
The Emotionally Friendly Schools (EFS) programme is a flexible, whole-school approach to improving children's mental health and well-being.
The accreditation focuses on four key areas:
- Staff Wellbeing and School Ethos
- Classroom Practice
- Assessing Children's Needs
- Supporting Individual Children
One of our key principles at St Wilfrid’s, is to support the wellbeing of both staff and pupils. We aim to ensure that all children are happy, healthy and able to cope with everything that life may throw at them. We promote and teach all pupils to be resilient, confident, have positive self-perceptions and appropriate coping mechanisms in a seamless and continuous method of delivery.
By adopting a whole school approach, we can ensure that wellbeing is central to everything that we do.
As adults, we ensure that we develop our understanding of emotions, self-control, positive relationships and keeping our mind and body healthy, in order to support our wellbeing and therefore we can have the best impact upon the pupils we support. We recognise, however, that the mental wellbeing of both staff and pupils can change from day to day and that there are times in everybody's life when a little extra help or support may be needed. Therefore, we have invested heavily in a supportive and nurturing system, the aim of which is to enable all individuals to flourish whilst on their St Wilfrid’s Journey.
As a school we also seek advice and support from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), School Nurse, Speech and Language Therapists, Paediatricians, the Primary Inclusion Team, the Educational Psychology Service. This helps to ensure that each individual receives the most rounded care possible.
