Wellbeing
The importance of supporting our children's wellbeing and social and emotional development is a priority at Forestdale. Nurturing our students in a safe, supportive and inclusive environment assists our children in becoming resilient, confident and lifelong learners.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Looking after a child or young person's mental health
There are times when we all feel the strain. As parents and carers, there are ways we can support children and young people to give them the best chance to stay mentally healthy.
Some children and young people have enjoyed being off school, while others will have really struggled – with the coronavirus outbreak keeping them at home and away from friends. Others may be coming to terms with family problems, loss or changes to their living situation.
With nationwide and local restrictions being regularly reviewed, they may also have to deal with self-isolating because of an outbreak in school or another period of school closure, or have worries about getting or passing on the virus. It's still uncertain what further changes we all may face.
Feelings like these will gradually ease for most, but there are always steps you can take to support them emotionally and help them cope with problems they face.
There's support available if you feel you or they need it.
Top tips to support children and young people
Looking after your own mental health
Talking mental health
This video, Talking Mental Health, is an animation designed to help begin conversations about mental health.
Bereavement
For any families suffering bereavement Child Bereavement Uk offer resources and support to families and children. Their animated short film, The Invisible Suitcase, (below) is designed to help bereaved children and families to understand their grief and how to manage it.
Mindfulness Music
Activities
Please see the activities below or click on our weekly Outdoor Learning Activities to help maintain or improve mental health and wellbeing.
t he 456 mindfulness challenge cards ver 2.pdf
t c 2549258 i am an amazing person activity sheet english ver 2.pdf
t c 1551 mindfulness colouring sheets bumper pack.pdf
t3 s 138 sensory brain break activity cards.pdf
t2 p 445 being kind to yourself activity sheet english ver 2.pdf
t2 t 863 ks2 yoga poses powerpoint .pdf
Support
A collection of further websites that provide information and support to young people and families.
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Providing information & support To families when a child is bereaved. |
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Offers confidential emotional telephone support in the UK for men, women, children and young adults. |
Click here for more support agencies
Anti Bullying Ambassadors
Anti-Bullying
Forestdale is committed to providing a caring, friendly, respectful and safe learning environment for all of our pupils. We promote an inclusive ethos that focuses on respecting one another and celebrating difference and diversity.
Bullying and prejudice-based language of any kind, involving pupils, adults towards pupils, staff or parents are unacceptable and will not be tolerated at our school.
We understand the devastating and lasting effect being bullied can have on some children and we will deal with all incidents equally seriously, quickly and effectively, whether it has taken place in or outside of school.
Preventing and tackling bullying is part of our work to support pupils’ social and emotional development and to be recognised as a healthy school. Helpful documents and the school anti-bullying policy can be found in this section.
Anti-Bullying Ambassadors
There are two Forestdale Anti- Bullying Ambassadors per year group. All children are invited to apply for the post. They have to explain why they want to become an ambassador, how they propose to support other students and describe the skills and qualities they possess which make them an ideal candidate to become an ambassador. The successful candidates are selected based on merit.
The anti-bullying ambassadors are easily identifiable by their Playground Pal tabards.
Playground Pal Tabard Worn by our Ambassadors
One key message at Forestdale is that bullying is if someone does something unkind to you:
Several
Times
On
Purpose
and if anyone is being bullied:
Start
Telling
Other
People
We use the acronym STOP to make the message memorable and clear.
Our wonderful Anti Bullying Ambassadors (FABAs) receive training, in accordance with our anti-bullying policy, and work in the classrooms and playground to ensure their peers feel safe and are happy at Forestdale.
Anti Bullying Ambassadors Tour and Workshop at the Houses of Parliament
Advice for Parents
If your child is being bullied:
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Take time to listen to your child and stay calm and acknowledge how they are feeling
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Calmly talk with your child
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Explain to them that bullying is unacceptable and that no one should have to put up with it. Promise to do all you can to stop it
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Write down what your child has said. If it involves cyberbullying, keep any evidence of emails and texts
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Encourage your child to talk to their teacher or someone at the school.
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Never intervene with other children or children’s parents, but let the school know
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Contact your child's class teacher as soon as possible to let them know your concerns. The school will take any incident of bullying extremely seriously and will deal with it quickly to find out why it has happened and to prevent it happening again
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Staff may not know about the bullying and will need to know what has happened and will discuss with parents and carers what action will be taken
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If you are not satisfied with the response you get and any action taken, you should contact the class teacher or Headteacher with your concerns.
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If you remain dissatisfied, you should follow the school's complaints procedure
Call or go on the website of one of the organisations dedicated to supporting parents and carers. They will give you independent advice and support. For example, Parentline Plus on 0800 800 2222 or the Parents Anti-Bullying Helpline on 0845 120 5204.
Daily Mile
The Daily Mile is a social activity, wherein the children run or jog – at their own pace – in the fresh air with friends. Children can occasionally walk to catch their breath, if necessary, but should aim to run or jog for the full 15 minutes.
The aim of The Daily Mile is to improve the physical, social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing of our children – regardless of age, ability or personal circumstances. Its impact can be transformational – improving not only the children’s fitness, but also their concentration levels, mood, behaviour and general wellbeing. Research has shown that The Daily Mile can even increase attainment in primary school, and parents have reported an increased interest in health and wellbeing from their children after they have started The Daily Mile.
I believe The Daily Mile will have a huge impact on young people's lives, helping children across the UK to be fitter, healthier and happier. I'm delighted to be supporting The Daily Mile, and hope that every child has the opportunity to take part in this fantastic initiative.
Colin Jackson, Olympic 110m hurdles Medallist
Family Fun Run
To further promote healthy and active lifestyles to the whole school and our community, we hold monthly Forestdale Family Fun Runs. The Fun Runs take place just before school and allows our children and their family members to have fun together whilst feeling the benefits of keeping active. Please keep an eye out for the dates each month on our calendar.
Safeguarding
At Forestdale Primary School the safety and welfare of our children is paramount.
Because of the day-to-day contact with children, our staff are well placed to observe the outward signs of abuse. All adults working in the school must protect children from harm and abuse, including Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Radicalisation/Extremism (Prevent Duty) and be aware that any pupil may be at risk of harm or abuse.
We have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of our pupils under the Education Act 2011 and Children Act 1989 through identifying any child welfare concerns and taking action to address them in partnership with families and other agencies where appropriate.
All staff at Forestdale Primary School have enhanced DBS status and are first aid trained. All new staff are recruited under our "Safer Recruitment" policy and procedures.
If you are concerned about the safety or wellbeing of a child either in or out of school please talk to one of the Designated Safeguarding Leads, listed below. In emergencies contact the police for advice.
If there are any concerns about your child's safety a referral may be made to agencies who can provide help; you will be kept closely involved in this process, unless it is deemed unsafe to do so.
Designated Safeguarding Leads
- Mrs Aburrow
- Mrs Hart
- Miss Holland-Skinner
- Miss Turner
- Mrs Leung
- Mrs Ashrafi
If you have any concerns about a child’s welfare, please contact us in person, on 020 8657 0924 or safeguarding@forestdale.croydon.sch.uk
Useful Links
NSPCC Helplines - 24/7 help, advice and support.
ChildLine - This website has information and support on a whole range of issues, alongside their supportline. Call 0800 1111.
SupportLine- SupportLine provides a confidential telephone helpline offering emotional support to any individual on any issue.
FRANK – Friendly, confidential drugs advice.
Educate Against Hate –This website gives parents, teachers and governors practical advice on protecting children from extremism and radicalisation.
Female Genital Mutilation: Help and Advice Get advice on how to stop female genital mutilation (FGM), or get help if you’re a victim.
Information and guidance on online safety
Thinkuknow - E-Safety advice divided up by age range.
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre delivers a multi-agency service dedicated to tackling the exploitation of children.
Digizen.org – The Digizen website provides information for educators, parents, carers, and young people. It is used to strengthen their awareness and understanding of what digital citizenship is.
Chatdanger - Information about the potential dangers on interactive services online like chat, IM, online games, email and on mobiles.
Kidsmart - Information on a variety of online resources to help keep children safe online.
Childnet - Childnet International’s mission is to work in partnership with others around the world to help make the Internet a great and safe place for children. Information and guidance on bullying
Kidscape - Provides helpful advice and information to prevent and tackle bullying.
Anti Bullying Ambassadors- Here you will find advice/support for a variety of bullying issues.
Bullying UK- Provides help and reliable information on a variety of bullying issues.
Online Safety
It is important that we keep our children safe when they are using the internet/social media and gaming. We can only be successful in keeping children safe online if we work with you to ensure the online safety message is consistent. Your help is needed to talk to your children about how they can keep safe and behave appropriately online. Children can accidently or deliberately be exposed to unwanted or unpleasant content or comments online and there are steps you can take at home to minimise this risk.
Keeping Children Safe Online
All the popular Social Media platforms (Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Tik Tok etc.) have an age restriction of 13, and WhatsApp have an age restriction of 16. Therefore, no primary school student should have a social media profile. There are good reasons for this age restriction to be in place. For example, inappropriate content, lack of maturity to use the site safely, exposing them to harmful content, risk of being contacted by sexual predators, creating an online profile which will be hard to remove in the future, placing added pressure on the child to deal with situations beyond their years. The list goes on but as parents you need to be aware of the safety implications by allowing your child access to Social Media at such a young age. If you do allow your child to have a Social Media account, make sure you set the privacy settings to private and check your child’s account on a regular basis.
To check age restrictions and further details on other apps please visit https://www.net-aware.org.uk/
The Communication Act 2003 makes it an offence to send anything on the Internet that is offensive, indecent, threatening or false and the reason for sending it is to cause the other person annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety. Remember the age of criminal responsibility in England is 10 years old. We would not want any of our children to get on the wrong side of the law, so we have to ensure they are using the Internet in a responsible and appropriate way. What can parents and carers do?
Follow the Golden Rules!
Ground Rules
- Discuss as a family how the internet will be used in your house. Consider what should be kept private online (personal information, photos etc.) and decide rules for making and meeting online friends. Make sure you know what your child is doing online much like you would offline. Only allow them to play online games that are age appropriate. Check the PEGI rating of the game. Remember the average age of an online gamer is 38 years old, there are far more adults playing these games than children, so we need to be vigilant.
Online Safety
- Install antivirus software, secure your internet connection and use Parental Control functions on your home broadband for computers, mobile phones and games consoles to block unsuitable content. A useful website to show you how to do all of this is https://www.internetmatters.org/
- Remember that parental control tools are not always 100% effective and sometimes unsuitable content can get past them, so don’t rely on them alone to protect your child. There has been an increase on online scams and fake news referring to the Coronavirus, so make sure you take advice from reliable sources such as NHS, GOV.UK, Local Authority, BBC etc.
Location
- Locate your computer in a supervised family area. Always supervise the use of webcams and applications which allow voice or video chat. Consider your child’s use of other devices that allow internet access such as Mobile Phones, Games Consoles, Kindles, iPod etc.
Handheld Devices
- Remember that Children are accessing the internet via their phones, tablets, iPods, Kindles, X boxes, Nintendos, PlayStation etc. Without parental controls on these devices, children can access whatever they want on the internet. Visit https://www.internetmatters.org/ to show how to set parental controls on a variety of handheld devices and gaming machines.
Dialogue
- Talk to your child and ask them to show or even teach you how they use the internet, learn which websites or tools they like to use and why. Learning together can often open opportunities to discuss safe behaviour with your child.
- Always ensure your child knows how to block or report people online who send nasty or inappropriate messages or content. Encourage your child not to retaliate or reply.
- Make sure your child knows to tell an adult they trust if they see something online that makes them feel scared, worried or uncomfortable.
- It’s essential to be realistic - banning the internet or technology will not work and it often makes a child less likely to report a problem. Education around safe use is essential.
DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CHILD TO HAVE INTERNET ENABLED DEVICES IN THEIR BEDROOMS UNTIL THEY REACH AN AGE AND MATURITY TO KEEP THEMSELVES SAFE.
Online-safety continues to be a key priority for our school. With more pupils than ever gaining access to technology, and at an ever-earlier age, we want to work in partnership with our families and community to ensure children are using it in a safe, positive and responsible manner.
Technology provides new learning opportunities – online collaboration, anytime anywhere learning and communication – but at the same time can provide additional opportunities for pupils to access material they should not, or be treated by others inappropriately. Our curriculum has a clear focus on online safety and shows pupils how to protect themselves from harm, particularly concerning cyber-bullying and dealing with strangers online.
At Forestdale we understand a range of factors keep children safe online:
- Policy- We have a clear and rigorous online safety policy, which has clear procedures used by the whole school.
- Staff- Our staff receive training on up-to-date training on online- safety.
- Curriculum- Our online safety curriculum is age-appropriate, relevant and engages pupils’ interest.
All breaches of online safety must be reported immediately to either the class teacher, the head teacher or the online safety officer safeguarding@forestdale.croydon.sch.uk.
Any illegal online activity must be reported to the police at ceop (the national crime agency's child protection command) www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre
Croydon's Online Safety Presentation for Parents
Zoe Barkham Manlow who is Croydon's Education Adviser for Health and Wellbeing, gave a presentation to parents on the subject of keeping children safe online. The slides from the presentation can be viewed below.
NSPCC Advice
The NSPCC has advice on how to keep your children safe online:
For further information, please visit:
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/
NSPCC Net Aware
A guide to guide to social networks, apps and games.
ThinkUKnow
Explore one of the six Thinkuknow websites for advice about staying safe when you're on a phone, tablet or computer
Maths Anxiety
Home School Support Worker
Hello. My name is Miss Holland-Skinner and I am the Home School Support Worker at Forestdale Primary.
My role is to provide support to parents/carers and help with any issues you may have in relation to supporting your children both at home and in school.
I can provide information, help and support in many areas such as health; parenting support; finance; relationship breakdown; anxiety and bereavement and also signpost to outside agencies when appropriate. I can provide practical help and support to you in matters concerning your child’s education, development and wellbeing.
I support children in school providing time and a safe space if they need someone to talk to. I am ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) trained and work with children on emotional literacy, regulation, bereavement and more.
Sometimes the stresses of everyday life can be quite overwhelming so if you need to talk these through, or need support please feel free to talk to me. You may need help with social and emotional wellbeing including friendship issues, grief & loss, parental separation, parenting, absence and lateness, behaviour, etc. If you have any concerns, I am here as a listening ear and to offer support. All information is kept confidential, subject to the usual child protection guidelines, however there may be occasions when issues need to be discussed with another member of staff.
I am in school Monday -Thursday
I run fortnightly wellbeing drop in’s for parents. You can book a 15 minute telephone or face to face appointment. If you would like to meet with me and discuss any concerns that you have, however big or small they may seem, you can do so here.