How Blaen-y-Cwm Primary School promotes resilience and confidence from within

Holding the wellbeing of it's students at its core, Blaen-y-Cwm Primary School are a Thrive school boasting a positive and ever-growing community.

Promoting resilience and confidence within the children, Susan Davies in a head teacher with a purpose. She has taught in every year of the Thrive school, therefore knowing the needs of her setting back-to-front.

From my point of view my ethos, what is at the core of what we do here, is to make sure our children's mental health and wellbeing are kept in check.

We have a lot of support mechanisms in place to ensure that this remains the case, and our curriculum is focused on the pupils' wellbeing and building resilience.

A happy learner learns well. If they're not happy then they're not going to learn, it's as simple as that.

Susan spends much of her time listening to her pupils, understanding their day-to-day needs. This allows her to implement practical measures to ensure the school remains a positive arena within which pupils can achieve their potential and focus on healthy emotional and social wellbeing.

With three Thrive Licensed Practitioners, an array of measures and initiatives have been taken to create a community of children, parents, and carers that can truly believe in the school. Steps taken to further improve the setting include:

• A suggestion box for pupils and parents to contribute to
• A deeply integrated IT system, which enables the use of digital screens in all classrooms
• A focus on learning about the different cultures within the school community
• Older pupils are encouraged to share their knowledge with younger students
• Local businesses are invited to meet with pupils for career insight days
• There are half-termly STEM weeks to allow children to immerse themselves in science and technology-focused curriculum work. Read our blog on the relevance of STEM in education, as well as some LEGO STEM ideas to try at home.

With continually improving standards, the Thrive school also: became the first Dementia Friendly school in Blaenau Gwent, has gained Autism-Friendly status, and is a lead school for the introduction of Person Centred Practice.

Blaen-y-Cwm Primary School is a wonderful example of a Thrive school considering the wellbeing of all pupils. There have been plenty of crucial and innovate steps that have taken the setting from strength-to-strength. We're looking forward to seeing where they head next.

Click here to read the full article about the successes experienced at Blaen-y-Cwm.

Over to you

Reduced anxiety and behavioural incidents. Calmer classrooms filled with engaged leaners. Improved relationships with parents and carers. These are just some of the outcomes reported by settings embedding Thrive’s whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing. Are you ready to join them? Click here to get started.