Important update
Dear parents and carers,
I wanted to update you on some positive changes that we have made during our latest INSET day. Over the coming weeks we will be working with our children across school to help them understand these changes and the reasons for them.
Positive behaviour
As of today we are introducing a new system for helping encourage positive behaviour throughout school. This is NOT because we have a concern about behaviour. Instead, as a caring and reflective school, we have made time to reflect on our current systems and approaches. The changes we are making are based on research and an understanding of the many needs of our children across school. We will continue to have high expectations of our children. Our new system continues to have boundaries to enable everyone to feel safe, happy and able to learn. We will share the changes with you over the coming days, as we introduce them to our children.
Mental health and well-being
The well-being of our pupils is of great importance to us. ‘Happy’ and ‘caring’ are deliberately 2 of our 3 school aims. We understand that without those two key factors, being able to achieve your best and being a positive member of society is simply not possible.
We recognise that there are a great many factors which influence the mental health and well-being of us all. Some of which are related to an individual child or person, some of which are impacted on by things out of school and others are impacted on by things during or related to school. We also recognise that all emotions are important and that emotions change often, including throughout each and every day. But whilst we recognise a range of emotions, some emotions are more difficult to manage than others, even as adults. Some emotions, if not well-managed, can also result in some unacceptable behaviour, again even as adults.
In order to help our children manage their own emotions and well-being, both now and in their lifelong futures, we are implementing an approach called ‘zones of regulation’. We will be sharing more information about ‘zones of regulation’ with you over the coming days.
What do we hope our ‘zones of regulation’ approach will achieve?
We hope that over time all children will learn to both recognise their own emotions and also develop an understanding of some of the different ways in which they can improve their emotional well-being and happiness. We know that some children find this easier than others. As do some adults. But by introducing this at a very young age we hope that we will be able to support our children to become happier and healthier young people and future adults.
Will this help at home?
We hope that by approaching well-being using this highly effective approach, that it will give our children the words and actions they need when faced with difficult emotions. As we share this approach with you and as your children get used to it within school, you may also find it useful to refer to it at home during difficult times! It may also help some of you as parents and carers, to reflect on your own mental health and well-being. Some of you may find some positive strategies to improve your own emotional well-being and in doing so, your response to difficult emotions. Family life and day to day life can be difficult and stressful for us all.
Mental health and well-being of staff – Please can we ask for your help and support.
With this in mind, it also seems like a good opportunity to write about something difficult, which is having a negative impact as a whole on the well-being of our staff team. For this we need your help and support, as it is not acceptable and needs to be addressed.
As part of our school community, myself and our staff team should also feel happy and cared for, as this is vital for us all if we are to achieve the very best for our children in school.
As a school we are passionate about coming to work every single day and doing the very best we can for our children. As professionals who have chosen to work with young children, we care very much about getting things right. It matters to us that we help our children to have positive experiences at school.
Please can we ask that as well as treating us with the kindness and respect we all deserve in life, that you recognise that we are also humans. As humans, we each have our own challenging lives outside of school, which will, at times, make it that little bit harder to manage the many emotional and demanding challenges that come from working with our fabulous children and families.
So in recognition of the importance of everyone’s well-being in school please can we ask the following of you for all of our staff team, including myself.
Please trust us.
We cannot always explain the significant thought that goes into the many, many decisions which take place each and every day in a busy school. You picked our school. Please therefore trust us to get on and make the decisions we need to make for our school and our children. Start by assuming the best of us and our intentions, not the opposite.
Please come and talk to us if you have any worries about your child.
We really care. Often talking things through takes worries away and leads to solutions where some might be needed. But please talk to us in the same calm and polite way as we will talk to you. It is not acceptable for parents or carers to shout, be aggressive or be rude to anyone in our school. Ever. Please also know that someone may need to call you back, as we may be busy when you ring.
Please consider stopping parent whats app groups- they can become a place which quickly becomes unpleasant, stressful, unhelpful and inaccurate for so many people.
Firstly, we often get told of things that are being written and said which are either entirely inaccurate, rude or insulting about people on our staff team. We are also aware of views and opinions being shared which are based on little or no factual information and which often have little relevance to most people in such a group. It can result in creating unhealthy and unnecessary stress for all. Such group chats can be uncaring and upsetting both to other parents and also to our caring and hugely committed staff team. We are all human. It is not acceptable for unnecessary, unhelpful and often inaccurate things to be said or written.
Secondly, negative group chats are unproductive and unhelpful and fundamentally will change nothing anyone may actually be worried about.
Thirdly, this behaviour online is an awful example to set to our children across our school. We should all model treating each other with care and kindness, both in person and in any online forums.
Worries, concerns or queries should absolutely be raised, but with us, appropriately and politely.
Many thanks to you all for your continued support. I hope you welcome the information we will share with you over the coming days.
Best wishes.
Miss Byrne
