At St John’s Meads, we prioritise the mental health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff and families. We do this through our nurturing ethos and by consciously investing in our relationships with one another. It is important to us that everyone feels welcomed and that pupils feel they belong as part of our school community.

The values we aim to foster have been chosen by the whole school community. These are: 

Love, Independence, Generosity, Honesty and Teamwork.

Wellbeing and mental health is supported in many ways at St John's Meads; through our curriculum, whole school events and different support systems offered to pupils on a 1:1 or small group basis. 

We work closely with East Sussex Mental Health team and use a trauma informed approach to improve mental health and wellbeing.

Please take time to watch this video about mental health:We All Have Mental Health

Zones of Regulation

The Zones of Regulation are an embedded part of our curriculum. From Reception, pupils are taught emotional literacy through storybooks and circle times. Pupils are encouraged to recognise the physiological effects of emotions on their body. They are supported to reflect, identify how they feel and communicate their emotions. Zones of Regulation displays feature in each class and children are actively encouraged to use these to communicate their feelings. Classes are also taught simple self-regulation strategies to help them to manage big feelings and children think about which strategies work for them personally. We understand that behaviour is a means of communicating, and we listen to various ways children attempt to communicate what is happening for them.

Green Zone	Blue Zone

Yellow Zone	Red Zone

Whole School Events

We come together for collective worship daily. School leaders, teachers and the local church leaders deliver these based on our school values and special theme days. Throughout the year, we celebrate days and weeks dedicated to mental health and emotional wellbeing. Among other ways, this is done through whole school and class based collective worship, pastoral care and activities. The days/weeks we have celebrated in the past have included:

• Children’s Mental Health Week
• Anti-Bullying Week
• Safer Internet Day
• NSPCC Number Day

SEMH library (Social, Emotional and Mental Health)

Books can be a great way of supporting children and broaching subjects which may feel confronting or overwhelming when brought up in conversation or other ways. The school has an extensive library of lovely books that cover themes such as emotions, neurodiversity, different types of families, bereavement, growth mindset and protective behaviours. Families are welcome to borrow books from this collection at any time. Please get in touch with the school SENCO if you would like to borrow a book to support any particular discussion at home.

Support and resources for families