A PRIMARY school has achieved a prestigious award for its outstanding mental health and wellbeing provision for pupils.

North Waltham Primary School has been awarded the School Mental Health Award, which is delivered by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools.

The school was awarded the Bronze standard for providing a wide range of activities to boost the wellbeing of pupils and staff, including Golden Mile, mindfulness sessions and excellent continual professional development for staff.

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A report recognised that the leadership team have developed clear and transparent systems to increase awareness and create a strong culture within the school and the staff team have undertaken a wide range of mental health training which has also been cascaded by the senior management team and the headteacher in particular.

Headteacher Jeff Maidment said: “We are delighted to be one of the first primary schools in the county to receive this award, which recognises the hard work of both students and staff, on what is an incredibly important issue.

“As a school at the heart of its community, we work tirelessly to support our students and aim to raise awareness of the importance of mental health and wellbeing.”

The school recently achieved a ‘good’ Ofsted inspection which involved canvassing staff and pupils regarding their mental health and wellbeing.

The award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead.

The Carnegie Centre aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances.

Doctor Steve Burton, Interim Dean of Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education, said: “Achieving this award is not just recognition of a whole-school approach to mental health, it’s a recognition of the school’s commitment to improving the life chances of children and engaging with the wider community including staff and parents/carers.

“We’re truly proud to have worked with North Waltham Primary School in this vital work and look forward to further collaboration.”

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Nationally, more than 1,000 schools have signed up to take part in the mental health award.

Dean Johnstone, founder and chief executive of Minds Ahead said: “This award shines a light on the excellent work schools are doing to promote mental health for their community of children and adults. “It is thrilling and humbling to learn about North Waltham Primary School and the many other schools engaged in the quality award process. I’d like to offer my congratulations on this deserved recognition."

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