Mental Health and Wellbeing

At Chesterton Primary School, we believe that mental health and wellbeing is of central importance to the lives of all of us in the school community.

We understand and are sympathetic to the fact that the challenges of parents, staff and children are different and from time to time we all face difficult for periods that we may need support with.

We believe having a mentally healthy community is not about being happy all the time, but about working together through challenges, and feeling supported, accepted and valued.

Zones of Regulation

At Chesterton, we use Zones of Regulation to teach pupils how to identify, understand and manage their emotions. There are four zones, blue, red, green and amber. Zones of Regulation is a range of activities to help your child develop skills in the area of self-regulation. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management and impulse control. It is defined as the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for the specific situation.

Staff at Chesterton model the four zones within every day teaching. We teach children that we move throughout the zones within a day and that this is OK.

What are the Zones of Regulation?

There are four zones:

Red – high levels of emotions/energy and loss of control (both positive and negative feelings)
Yellow – rising levels of emotions/energy
Blue – low levels of energy
Green – ready to learn

Zones of Regulation believe that there are NO bad zones. We all move through the different zones throughout the day. We teach children to recognise when they are in each zone and build our own toolkits to manage our emotions.

https://zonesofregulation.com/what-are-the-four-zones-of-regulation/

More Information:

https://zonesofregulation.com/

https://zonesofregulation.com/research/

https://zonesofregulation.com/how-it-works/

Child Trauma Therapy at Chesterton

At Chesterton, we have on-site Trauma therapist who supports teachers, pupils and parents through a referral system. Jess Van Der Hoech founded 'The Gap Bedfordshire Limited' in response to the lack of trauma treatment interventions available within the area of Bedfordshire. To promote the school journey, Jess has trained staff in recognising trauma behaviour, as well as strategies that can be used in the classroom. These strategies are regularly used both as a class and individually. Her ongoing work has proved crucial with a number of children who have faced some trauma in their lives, as well as supporting parents and staff when needed.

If you would like to refer your child to Trauma Therapy, please speak directly to Jess or Victoria Storey who will be happy to help you.

Further Information:

https://www.thegapbedfordshire.co.uk/

https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/jess-van-der-hoech-2

https://www.jvtraumatools.co.uk/

Tips to support Mental Health & Wellbeing

There are many services you can access to support in the area of mental wellbeing. You will find a collection of PDFs in our Supporting Documents area below, with links to helpful resources covering a range of areas including support with:-
• Finding a therapist
• Addiction and substance misuse
• Anxiety
• Bereavement
• Eating disorders
• Depression
• Self-harm
• Family, Parenting and Relationships