Wellbeing
CARITAS support
Families at Mendell are able to use services from CARITAS. These may include:
Family Support Work
School Projects
Individual counselling for Adults and Children
Community Hub (Moreton Area) Family Support, Drop In for advice, Adult Counselling, Creche, Health and Education programmes
Parenting Programmes
PEEP Parenting Programme for Parents and under Two’s
Post Adoption work in partnership with Nugent Care
Practical help and support to those in need
Opportunities for volunteering
If you feel you and/or your child would benefit from support from CARITAS please contact the school office or email: support@mendell.wirral.sch.uk
Staff Well Being We are dedicated in developing and maintaining a working environment that places Mental Health, Wellbeing and Emotional Health at the heart of what it does. As a result the governors of the school have taken the following steps:
•The school’s marking policy clearly sets out that staff feedback to children will ‘mainly be verbal rather than written and that staff will usually mark work during lessons when pupils are present.’
•Teachers are not expected to reply to emails at home or during evenings and weekends (although they may choose to do this).
•The school diary is shared so that all staff are aware of what is coming up over the forthcoming week and further if required.
•Teachers are encouraged to take planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) non-contact time, off site if they wish.
•Staff have been provided with a range of services and tools to support them with their own mental health and well being such as the use of SAS app, Wellbeing Wednesdays, SOS days and reduction in planning expectations via the use of high-quality scheme that can be adapted rather than planned from scratch.
•1:1 sessions with governors at least annually (where covid restrictions allow)
Metacognition
At Mendell, we want our children to understand that it is a positive thing to be 'stuck' or grapple with learning and it is good to make mistakes. Some of our best learning is done when we find things tricky. Rather than simply praising success, we praise effort and persistence. We know that FAIL stands for First Attempt In Learning and so failure shouldn’t be scary – it is just part of the learning journey!
We have three zones of learning at Mendell:
- The comfort zone: This is when work is easy; we are practising things we already know. This helps to commit learning to long term memory however, it does not make 'new' learning. This zone is marked in green in the children's books when they self reflect on their learning for that lesson.
- The stretch zone: This is when work is challenging and tricky and we grapple with learning. Learning in the stretch zone draws on prior knowledge, it helps our brains grow and stretches our learning. This zone is marked in orange/yellow in the children's books when they self reflect on their learning for that lesson.
- The panic zone: If work is much too difficult, we can panic. This can make our brains shut down and we end up giving up. This zone is marked in red in the children's books when they self reflect on their learning for that lesson.
We believe the best approach is to teach children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort and keep on learning. We make sure that all children encounter challenges and find some work challenging! Our children recognise that effort, persistence and good teaching are what help them improve. We aim to keep children in their stretch zone as much as possible.