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Well Being and Pastoral Care

Pastoral care of our pupils

At the heart of our education is the understanding that children flourish when they feel safe, respected and cared for. At Woodside Junior School, we understand that everyone has the duty to safeguard our pupils and ensure a caring and nurturing environment.  

At Woodside Junior School it is the class teachers who are ultimately responsible for the pastoral care of the pupils in their class, helping each of them to achieve and enjoy what they do as well as ensuring that high standards of behaviour are maintained.  Our pupils are expected to be good mannered, courteous and respectful of the feelings of others.

It is important to us that our pupils enjoy their own and others’ achievements.  With this in mind, we have several pastoral support mechanisms in place to ensure that we quickly identify the needs of pupils, addressing any learning or social issues effectively.  This may be in the form of whole class activities, a small group intervention, or through 1:1 support delivered by our trained ELSA workers. 

In addition, our approach to the delivery of Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, encourages awareness of moral values within our pupils, developing self-respect, healthy relationships and an understanding and appreciation of diversity within our society.  Our pupils are also encouraged to think about and care for the environment. Our Eco-Council promotes environmental awareness within our school community. 

At the centre of our school life are the Woodside's values of Resilience, being Inquisitive, Proud of our school, Positive as well Collaboration and Responsibility.  It is important to us, as a school, that pupils are rewarded for their efforts and that they, in turn, learn to praise the achievement of others. During our Achievement Assemblies we celebrate children's achievements not only in school but also during their pursuits of many out of school interests.  Woodside  pupils also being given the opportunity to perform in assemblies, sporting evens and school productions.

Well-being of our pupils

At Woodside Junior School, we are committed to supporting and promoting the mental and physical health and emotional well-being of our pupils and staff. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.  

We understand that schools that most effectively promote good mental health and wellbeing do so by adopting a whole-school approach.  We aim to ensure that:

  • Positive relationships are the heart of all the work that we do.
  • We ensure an inclusive and supportive culture.
  • There is a strong sense of purpose, shared values and ethos.
  • We have high expectations of all children and there are clear boundaries and rules.

At Woodside, PSHE curriculum plays an important role in assisting pupils to cope with the changes at puberty, introduces them to a wider world, help them to manage transitions and enables our pupils to make an active contribution to the  community. The concepts covered in PSHE include keeping safe and managing risk, identity, equality, managing feelings and emotions, relationships, change, resilience and being healthy, which includes physical, mental, emotional and social well-being. We aim to promote pupils’ wellbeing through an understanding of their own and others’ emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies.

Good mental health and wellbeing is just as important as good physical health. Like physical health, mental health can range across a spectrum from healthy to unwell; it can fluctuate on a daily basis and change over time. 

At Woodside Junior School we offer:

Universal needs - the needs of all children and young people and opportunities to develop resilience and emotional well-being

Additional needs - the needs of those made vulnerable at some time by life experiences

Targeted needs - the needs of those children who need differentiated support and resources

Specialist needs - those children  who are in need of having specialist intervention by trained professiona

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