Social and Emotional Well-being

At Cranfield Church of England Academy, we commit to promoting social and emotional well-being and responding to mental health concerns.

Creating an environment which supports positive mental health and wellness requires lots of ingredients. For our children this includes:  

Inclusive and welcoming environments

A warm welcome awaits all children and their families. 

Parental Engagement

Our staff consider it a priority to have strong, knowledgeable relationships with families so our children can be effectively supported. Parents have daily access to the staff team and opportunities to communicate. 

We further commit to promoting wellbeing to our families through active sign-posting to community resources to support family life and mental health – both by approaching parents directly and through our wider communication channels. 

 Values-Based Education

Our Christian Values based Education strives to create a strong learning environment that enhances academic attainment, and develops children’s social and relationship skills that last throughout their lives. The positive learning environment is achieved through the positive values modelled by staff throughout the school.  It also provides social capacity to the children, equipping them with social and relationship skills, intelligences and attitudes to succeed at school and throughout their lives.  Values are an integral part of our school…as one child said “Values are our DNA”. 

Making Me

We work closely with Making me a Bedford based charity working in schools in the Bedfordshire area with a focus on the prevention/early intervention of children and young people's mental ill health. 

The Making Me Strategies we adopt are focused on two main objectives:

• Firstly, that in order to feel emotionally secure, and thereby engage in academic learning, children need to feel 'seen, heard and held'.
• Secondly, in a world where mental health difficulties are becoming increasing prevalent and affecting children of ever younger ages, we believe that teaching children how to stay mentally and emotionally well, equips them with life-long skills that will help to safeguard them from mental health difficulties in the future.

Making Me’s Emotional Literacy Programme for children in Reception to Year Four develops children's emotional literacy, teaches resilience skills and encourages children to use their words rather than their behaviour to communicate how they feel. 

The Feelings Flower:

The Feelings Flower forms the basis of the Making Me Emotional Literacy Programme and acts as a barometer by which staff can assess the emotional well-being of each child on arrival at school. Each day, children will place ‘their caterpillar’ on the feeling they have at this time. Whatever this emotion, children will be empowered to be ‘seen’ and ‘heard’, and where needed, ‘held’. 

“The flowers mean I can tell the teacher how I feel, without speaking.”

“I put my caterpillar on the feelings flower during the day and my teacher asked me to talk and it helped me.”

Caterpillar Club:

Caterpillar Club involves a weekly story in which any one of 18 feelings are discussed and analysed by way of a simple story about a caterpillar. The story includes aspects around how each feeling is experienced, how best they can be managed and how to practice being calm. By relating the accompanying caterpillar to feelings of well-being and communication, feedback has indicated that Caterpillar Club is a tool that can be used throughout school to help children manage difficult feelings and behaviours. In our school, each class has its own Casey Caterpillar which can be held by children when they want to feel calm. We will use it to help us breathe slowly and feel safe.

Casey Calm Time Boxes:

Every classroom has access to a Casey calm time box. This provides children with sensory toys, activities and materials which children can use to support themselves to self regulate when they are struggling to manage their emotions and feelings.

 Rigorous Intervention for SEMH

At Cranfield Academy we work tirelessly to ensure we make reasonable adjustments, where necessary, in the classroom in order for children to reach their full potential. Should children require further support for their emotional wellbeing and mental health there are a number of interventions and agencies we work with. Please speak with your child's class teacher and/or our SENDCo for more information. 

Our Curriculum

Through the lens of our Christian Vision, we design our curriculum to focus on children’s development spiritually, morally, socially, culturally, academically and physically, providing the very best introduction to the essential knowledge they need to be educated, well-rounded individuals in a modern world ready for their next stage in education.

 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old
he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

You can find out much more information about our curriculum by clicking here. 

Commitment to Safeguarding

At Cranfield Church of England Academy we believe that a caring school promotes the welfare, health, safety and guidance of every child. We recognise our statutory duty and pastoral duty to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our pupils. Cranfield Academy is committed to ensuring every child feels safe and secure both within and beyond our school community. As part of this commitment we feel it is important to actively educate children about ways to stay safe under the wider umbrella of safeguarding demonstrated below. 

To ensure pupil’s confidence to share their wellbeing experiences, we regularly promote and discuss Cranfield’s ‘Helping Hand’. Our pupils use this to seek support from their trusted adults and friends when they are concerned. 

Active Schools

We are proud of our Physical Education and emphasis on being active at Cranfield Academy. It is our belief that sport and physical activity enables our children to build confidence and inspires all children to succeed and excel in physical activities as well as living a physically and mentally active and healthy lifestyle; evidence shows us that through being active, children’s brains will work better, children feel more connected to school, and children feel happier and attain higher levels. From our efforts both in and out of school we always aspire to do our very best.

Pupil Voice & Leadership

At Cranfield Church of England Academy we ensure a rich wealth of opportunities for children to express themselves and impact positively on change.

Our active Academy Parliament strives to review our school’s strengths and make decisions about our next steps. Our Parliament shares their feelings on wellbeing of their friends and classes, and works with teachers to make our school a better place to be. 

Our older children embrace the opportunity to support the wellbeing of others in wider roles in school which include, Play Leaders, Sports Ambassadors, Values Ambassadors and Assembly Monitors

Engagement with the Wider Community

Strong relationships with our village Churches ensure the spiritual wellbeing of our community. Our community actively volunteers to contribute to the life of the school and the positive impact on our children is similarly reciprocated to these valuable adults. Our children’s sense of their community is strengthened further in commitments to community life; our pupil’s exceptional respect at Remembrance Parades or participation in the bi-annual Christmas Tree Festival are examples of this. We know that it takes village to raise a child! 

Approach to Behaviour Management

The Academy’s supportive and safe Christian ethos allows children to flourish and thrive. We have high expectations, build strong relationships with pupils, provide positive responses to good behaviour choices and teach children ‘why’ some choices made are poor ones.  

Strong relationships are built when individuals feel valued, listened to and are treated with dignity, kindness and respect. The school uses the Restorative Practice model which encourages people to take responsibility for their actions and repair any harm that they have caused. 

The moral values that underpin all the choices made by the school and its pupils are translated into ‘The Cranfield Way’. 

Useful Websites & Resources:

• Supporting Children's Mental Health Leaflet
• www.youngminds.org.uk
• www.minded.org.uk
• www.place2be.org.uk
• www.nspcc.org.uk
• www.chums.uk.com
• Understanding the Sexual Development of Children Under 5
• Understanding the Sexual Development of 5 to 11 Year Olds
• Central  Bedfordshire Local Offer for Emotional Wellbeing