“A healthy outside starts from the inside”
Robert Urich
At Westfield school we recognise that the emotional and mental wellbeing of our students is the key that unlocks the door to successful learning, and fulfilling relationships and experiences, with other people, as well as the world around them.
Friendship groups- Students in Key stag 2 and above attend a weekly friendship group run by the pastoral team. These groups are designed to teach social and emotional skills and resilience using a variety of strategies and resources including Theraplay, Partnership for Children programs and targeted social skill and relationship programs.
The groups are created by considering the age and social/emotional ability of each student. The aims of each group centre on developing targeted skills for the individuals within that group, as well as encouraging healthy friendships amongst all the students.
They have the added bonus of being fun!
Individual interventions – For the students who require extra emotional support we also provide opportunities for individual sessions with a member of our pastoral team. These sessions can be short term, aimed at tackling a specific issue, or longer term emotional support for students who have difficulties with anxieties, regulating their own emotions, bereavement or have experienced a trauma in their life.
We work alongside a number of additional agencies to ensure the correct type of support can be accessed if the emotional need is felt to be too complex for school staff to manage correctly and a higher level of support is required.
Therapeutic approaches provided by trained staff at Westfield include:
Story massage - https://www.storymassage.co.uk/
TACPAC - https://tacpac.co.uk/
Rebound therapy - https://reboundtherapy.org/about/
Intensive interaction- https://www.intensiveinteraction.org/find-out-more/about-intensive-interaction/what-is-intensive-interaction/
Drawing and talking - http://www.drawingandtalking.com/about-us
Massage
Yoga to aid mindfulness and relaxation
Therapeutic play work
Other therapies we have regular access to at Westfield include:
Play therapy with Hatty
Music therapy with Annie
Speech and Language therapy with Angharad
Physiotherapy with Beth and Tracy
RDA Horse riding at North Farm, Ludlow