Healthy Schools London Review Tool s1

The Healthy Schools London (HSL) Gold Award Reporting Tool

of 15 School Details

Name of School: Southwark Park Primary School Southwark Key contact and job title: Amina Begum (PSHE Co-ordinator, class teacher) and Sarah Landeg ( Physical Health Lead, Member of SLT) Date achieved HSL Bronze Award: 31/07/2015 and renewed on the 22/09/2017

Date achieved HSL Silver 14/06/2016 Award: Health and Wellbeing Priority 1 Group (universal) To improve levels of emotional literacy and All pupils from Yr 1- Yr 6 1. healthy relationships through restorative (327 sample size/343 total number) that they know how make it up with friends approaches to behaviour for learning. when they have had an argument/fallen out, (327 sample group size/343 total number) from 72% (236 out of 327 sample group) to 90% (294/327 sample group)

2. children behave positively ‘at school’ from 64% (210/327 sample group) to 90% (294/327 sample group)

3. they feel safe at school from 81% (264/327 sample group) to 95%age (311/327 sample group)

Health and Wellbeing Priority 2 (targeted) Group To increase the levels of confidence, self- Targeted support group across KS2 1. esteem and sense of achievement of an (24 total number in group) they are sometimes, often or all the time identified group of withdrawn, quiet children able to speak about things they do not agree in KS2 with or think are wrong from 58% (14/24) to (24 sample size/24 total number in group) 79% (19/24)

2. they often or all the time understand their own strengths and that this helps them feel good about themselves from 46% (11/24) to 79% (19/24)

3. they often or all of the time know ways to Name of School: Southwark Park Primary School Southwark calm down when they are angry or upset from 29% (7/24) to 75% (18/24)

Project Start Date 01/09/2016

Project End Date 31/07/2017

Consent to share Report and Photographs We agree that HSL may share this report and photographs. Please delete as appropriate Yes

Reporting Template HSL Gold Award: Health and Wellbeing Priority 1 (Universal) Health and Wellbeing Priority 1 (universal) Planned Outcome/s To improve levels of emotional literacy and healthy relationships through 1. increase percentage of pupils reporting that they know how make it restorative approaches to behaviour for learning. up with friends when they have had an argument/fallen out, from 72% (327 sample group size/343 total number) (236 out of 327 sample group) to 90% (294/327 sample group)

Group All pupils from Yr 1-Yr6 2. increase %age of pupils reporting that the children behave (327 sample size/343 total number) positively ‘at school’ from 64% (210/327 sample group) to 90% (294/327 sample group)

3. increase %age of pupils reporting that they feel safe at school from 81% (264/327 sample group) to 95%age (311/327 sample group)

Health and Wellbeing Priority 1: Record and report impact: Evidence of what has changed as a result of the intervention (planned or unintended outcomes and wider impact) A: Record results and outcomes

Overview:

NATIONAL DATA Department for Education, in the March 2015 guidance “ Mental health and Behaviour in schools” states that: In order to help their pupils succeed, schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy’. There are a variety of things that schools can do, for all their pupils and for those with particular problems, to offer that support in an effective

Restorative Approaches (RA) Research - “RA approaches can have a positive impact on reducing exclusions, increasing staff confidence for managing conflicts, improving the sense of responsibility amongst young people for their behaviour, having a calmer, safer learning environment and a more positive school ethos” (London Page 3 of 15 Borough of Barnet, research) (http://www.transformingconflict.org/sites/default/files/Barnet%20007098_RA%20Evaluation%20A4%20Booklet%20final %20version%20%282%29.pdf

Southwark March 2016 Chimat Child Health Profile for Southwark. children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is above that of the national average the local trajectory however is on a slightly higher upward level than that of the national trajectory first time entrants to youth offending is higher locally than the national average. Southwark Children and Young Peoples plan (CYPP) (2013-16 p.4) aims to empower our children, young people, families and their communities to be {emotionally and physically} safe, independent and responsible for their own wellbeing’. Enable every child, young person and family in Southwark [to] thrive and [be] empowered to lead a safe and healthy life’ (CYPP P.3).

School Development Plan (SDP), our priorities aligned to this universal priority include To continue to develop an outstanding policy and practice around behaviour for learning and relationships to ensure that all children feel safe and happy in school and can learn well because other children in their class behave well

Health Education Partnership (HEP) Self Awareness whole school survey completed in Summer Term 2016, the needs identified to address issues around building strategies for working out relationship problems improving the pupils’ perception of the overall behaviour in school increasing all pupils’ sense of safety at school, both emotionally and physically Anecdotal information gathered by staff demonstrated a need to address this will all children from Year 1-6, in conjunction with an introduction of whole school restorative approaches.

In choosing this universal priority we are now able to demonstrate in this Gold Report that we have been able to address national, local and school based guidance, research and priorities through a whole school strategic approach which will help to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes for all our pupils.

Planned outcome:

Increase percentage of pupils reporting that they know how make it up with friends when they have had an argument/fallen out, from 72% (236 out of 327 sample group) to 90% (294/327 sample group)

Increase %age of pupils reporting that the children behave positively ‘at school’ from 64% (210/327 sample group) to 90% (294/327 sample group)

Increase %age of pupils reporting that they feel safe at school from 81% (264/327 sample group) to 95%age (311/327 sample group) Outcomes achieved

Questions: June 2016 Target July 2017 Different Different from June from 2016 target The children 72% 90% 91% +19% +1% know how make it up with friends when they have argument/fallen

The children 64% 90% 93% +29% +3% behave positively ‘at school’

The children feel 81% 95% 82% +1% -13% safe at school

Detailed Results:

Our target was to increase the percentage of pupils reporting that they knew how make it up with friends when they have had an argument/fallen out, from 72% to 90% - Exceeded In June 2016 72% of pupils (236/327) reported that they knew how make it up with friends when they have had an argument/fallen out. When we repeated the survey in June 2017 91% of pupils (286/ 316) agreed with this statement which is a percentage increase of 26% and exceeds the planned target of 90% by 1%.

Our target was to increase the percentage of pupils reporting that the children behave positively ‘at school’, from 64% to 90%. - In June 2016 64% of pupils (210/327 sample group) reported that the children behave positively ‘at school’. When we repeated the survey in June 2017 93% of pupils (272/292) agreed with this statement which is a percentage increase of 45% and exceeds the planned target of 90% by 3%.

Our target was to increase the percentage of pupils reporting that they feel safe in school, from 81% to 95% - Not Met In June 2016 81% of pupils (264/327) of pupils reported that they feel safe at school. When we repeated the survey in June 2017 82% of pupils (238/292) agreed which this statement which is an increase of 1% but is short of the planned target of 95% by 13%*

* We strongly believe that this is due to the recent events that have taken place in the country. The children completed the surveys in the same week of the London Bridge terrorist attack which is very close to our schools and home community. This was also shortly after the Manchester attacks which was discussed largely in school with many children expression genuine fear and anxiety. Despite the many assemblies and PSHE lessons we held to address these issues to ensure our pupils feel safe, many parents and pupils had chosen to limit participation in joining in any extracurricular activities i.e. trips. For example, a day trip planned for year 3 a few days after, only 40% of the children attended. Page 5 of 15 Describe how you achieved the outcomes:

In September 2016, Southwark Park Primary School re-launched the Restorative Justice programme we had originally embarked on in 2013. Four members of the Health and Well Being team attended three days training. We felt it was important to ensure that there was a whole school commitment to the practice. We have many new members of staff who had not received the initial training. After introducing the restorative way in our start of year inset, we dedicated a whole day inset at the end of the first autumn term. It was a very positive day with established members of staff appreciating the retraining and new members of staff feeling more equipped to have the restorative conversations that have had such a positive impact on our school. This has had a very positive impact on our behaviour analysis/time out figures. The school is calm and the children are now well versed in the restorative way of resolving their disputes. As this reinforces positive behaviour management, behaviour for learning has been identified by external Teaching and Learning reviews as outstanding.

This has dovetailed with our commitment to becoming a Unicef Rights Respecting School. We have just received our Level One Award. The rights of the convention are explicitly taught and contextualised within the topics the children are studying. It has had a profound impact on the children now seeing themselves as global citizens. They know their rights but also understand that with every right comes a responsibility. This has allowed all year groups to understand that although they have rights to clean water, healthy and nutritious food, leisure and culture they also have a responsibility to keep themselves healthy. They also understand that healthy involves mental health and that exercise works! We have extended the range of after-school clubs to include basketball, Zumba and street dance and have run yoga days each term for all year groups from 1-6. We are also invested in the Barnado’s Paths Scheme to assist in the teaching of P.S.H.E. within the class. We have run an Anti-Bullying Week run by our F.A.B. Team (Friends Against Bullying) who worked closely with our drama teacher to run a week of positive play workshops and assemblies. This generated our playground charter and a book of playground games for each classroom. We have also zoned the playground since this event, consulting with the school council around playground ‘hotspots’.

Each classroom has a Rights Respecting display and at the beginning of the year all classrooms have a diversity display. The rights are displayed all around the school. We also have a religious display in our library celebrating the six major faiths of the world. In the past few distressing weeks in London and Manchester, we have led assemblies focusing on tolerance, understanding and that fanaticism plays no part in faith. We also have a rights respecting box where children put in a slip where they believe a child has demonstrated a rights respecting behaviour and explained why. This is later celebrated in assembly where children nominate a child.

The school have included the RA in the behaviour policy, which is now refer to when new staff join our school community. Display in the foyer-where we have our restorative chats A log of conversations to record any incidents where children need time to reflect C: Analysis of results Include details of what worked and why

Having followed the restorative approach there has been a reduced number of children who are being sent out of class or sent to time out due to their behaviour. All staff reported that having evaluated and reflecting on the use of the traffic light, it meant there was more of a positive focus on it rather than just a negative focus as before. There was space for children to progress onto the traffic light to move on to the rainbow and celebrate their behaviour with a sticker. Overall all staff have been totally on board in terms of delivering and following the RA procedures effectively which has had a really good impact through this consistency and commitment. This has been additionally noted by 4 local authority consultants who have visited the school over the year for monitoring visits, all of whom have noted in their feedback reports to the school an improvement in SMSC, behaviour and the focused learning ethos across the school. One child reported that “the traffic lights now allow us to go up rather than always down. And if there’s an issue we can talk about it” A teacher reported that “it allows us to use it to engage and focus the children on positive behaviours” One LA consulted reported that “The school’s work to promote pupils’ personal development and welfare is very good.”

Having achieved Level One Rights Respecting School award, the children have a deeper understanding on the roles they play as part of school community and how they should respect their rights. The children now have the confidence and are comfortable to ask pupils to stop if they are being disruptive in

One child reported “ if someone disrupts me in class I know they’re taking my right to an education away”

In addition to the above, another clear reason why we achieved target one was due to following the correct use of the PATHS. There has been a planned and noticeable increased focus in lessons on friendships and how to maintain good friendships. This has proven to be very effective as more children are negotiating their own issues in class. This is reflected in the reduction of the number of children who have reported having issues. A teacher reported “before we were doing this, so much lesson time was wasted with children bickering. Since we’ve focusing friendships more, and RA, the children are happier and calmer overall and more focused in lessons.”

In response to Target three we gave children maps who highlighted the areas where they felt least safe. We then worked with the school council who highlighted that the playground was an area that needed to be worked on. After lots of deliberation with the children we created zones in the playground where specific activities took place. The children have reported to feel happier and safer in the playground and as a result there has been a decrease in the number of issues being reported during lunch. To help maintain a happy and safe environment during the lunch hour we trained twenty year four and five children to be playground supported. Previously we had trained year six children to be supported but we realised we would have a more efficient systems in the beginning of the year by training younger children who would stay longer in our school. One child said “I really like the zones, I know what I can do in each zone and there adults know if they are in the wrong places”

Include details of what did not work and why

The reason why we haven’t met Target three may have been due to this being quite a challenging target, although we feel that, even despite this, the current local circumstances surrounding recent terrorist attacks had an impact on how safe the children were feeling during the time we revisited the survey. This was three days after the attack on London Bridge, which is very close to our school community. Despite the talks we had with the children in class and in assembly they still felt very unsafe in their own area. We truly feel that had we completed the survey before the attacks had taken place it is likely to have been a very different outcome.

of 15 It was very pleasing to find from the revisit of the parents’ survey that they all strongly agreed that they felt their children were safe in our school. They had felt we had addressed the issues very well.

Another reason why we may not have reached our targets in this overall priority is that we spent time with parents with regards to becoming a right respecting school, but did not have the time or the capacity to deliver the planned work in relation to involving parents with the restorative approaches at home. As a result, we have now put this in the SIP for 2017-18 as a priority, to work with parents to further develop RA in our school, and at home. Also, we had planned to work with our link school but this did not happen because there were too many barriers re: practical and logistical reasons to enable the 2 schools to work together. However, we are still completely committed to develop this and this is also included in 2017/18 SDP

Although the restorative approach has improved behaviour generally as a whole, for those few children with specific behavioural issues, it has not had as big an impact as we were hoping for. We feel that the process may have isolated these children further, as their emotional intelligence to negotiate/use restorative language and behaviours has not developed or matured as well the other children. There are still a number of these children (approx only 6 in the whole school) who still have much difficulty reasoning and calming. We will endeavour to notice and work with children who continue to struggle with some of these approaches and we will also offer additional parenting support for the parents of these children to learn and develop some of the approaches at home.

We noted an increase in some behavioural issues in some of our Y6 children in this latter half of the summer term, we think maybe on reflection, as a result of anxieties about transition to secondary school. From next year we will place higher importance on the resilience aspects of PSHE for our Yr 6 pupils to hopefully address this issue.

Unintended outcomes/ wider impact: As a result of the higher focus on RA we have realised that we need to do more, all of which we have planned in for work next academic year, as

Resilience project with Y5 Separate project-target group year 6 getting ready for transition Independent behaviour plans for individual pupils Detention is now called time out-behaviour management has a focus on rewards rather than sanctions MMS- recognised they needed more support in playground provided additional training and a member of SMT is always in the playground supporting during lunch times Teachers asked to come out early to support children lining up SEN – practise on how to be reflective

D: How activity is being sustained We plan to share and sustain these activities so they continue beyond the life of this project, as follows:

Maintaining focus of RA within SDP 2017 – 18 and specific actions as identified above in certain section of the SDP Phase meetings will be more discrete/specific and clear in relation to delivering RA and PATHS – we will keep it on the radar through these meetings Monitoring and evaluating PSHE in 2017/18 with focus on relationships Continuing and developing the traffic light system with a more positive approach and placing higher focus on rewards rather than sanctions Linking with Grange to share RA strategies and develop best practise New staff will be trained

of 15 Reporting Template HSL Gold Award: Health and Wellbeing Priority 2 (Targeted) Health and Wellbeing Planned Outcome/s Priority 2 (Targeted) To increase the levels of Increase the %age of pupils reporting that they are sometimes, often or all the time able to speak about things they do confidence, self-esteem and not agree with or think are wrong from 58% (14/24) to 79% (19/24) sense of achievement of an identified group of Increase the %age of pupils reporting that they often or all the time understand their own strengths and that this helps withdrawn, quiet children in them feel good about themselves from 46% (11/24) to 79% (19/24)

(24 group size/24 total Increase the %age of pupils reporting that they often or all of the time know ways to calm down when they are angry or number of group) upset from 29% (7/24) to 75% (18/24) Group Targeted support group

(24 total number of group)

Health and Wellbeing Priority 2: Record and report impact: Evidence of what has changed as a result of the intervention (planned or unintended outcomes and wider impact) A: Record results and outcomes Overview:

NATIONAL DATA Department for Education, in the March 2015 guidance “ Mental health and Behaviour in schools” states that: There are things that schools can do….for those showing early signs of problems…to intervene early and strengthen resilience before serious mental health problems occur.’ Resilience seems to involve several related elements. Firstly a sense of self-esteem and confidence: secondly a belief in one’s own self efficacy and ability to deal with change and adaptation; and thirdly a repertoire problem solving approaches’. the role that schools play in promoting the resilience of their pupils is important, particularly so for some children where their home life is less supportive. School should be a safe and affirming place for children where they can develop a sense of belonging and feel able to trust and talk openly with adults about their problems.’

No Health Without Mental Health: A cross-government strategy (DfE: 2011) As a school it is vital that we support our students in the best way possible.

Southwark March 2016 Chimat Child Health Profile for Southwark. children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing is above that of the national average the local trajectory however is on a slightly higher upward level than that of the national trajectory first time entrants to youth offending is higher locally than the national average.

Southwark SHEU data from 2014 , in terms of the emotional health of the young people in Southwark: 66% of boys and 55% of girls from years 4 and 6 recorded high and very high levels of self esteem, indicating 33% and 45% respectively not with good levels of self esteem, within which 7% overall reported very low levels of self esteem. 29% of pupils did not report that they felt their school cared whether they feel happy or not.

Southwark Children and Young Peoples plan (CYPP) (2013-16 p.4) aims to empower our children, young people, families and their communities to be {emotionally and physically} safe, independent and responsible for their own wellbeing’. Enable every child, young person and family in Southwark [to] thrive and [be] empowered to lead a safe and healthy life’ (CYPP P.3).

SCHOOL DATA In our 2016-17 School Development Plan (SDP), our priorities aligned to this universal priority include To continue to develop an outstanding policy and practice around behaviour for learning and relationships to ensure that all children feel safe and happy in school and can learn well because other children in their class behave well

Health Education Partnership (HEP) Self Awareness whole school survey completed in Summer Term 2016, the needs identified to address an overall focus on health and wellbeing, specific work with a targeted group of pupils backed up by feedback from staff that there are children throughout key stage 2 who lack confidence and self esteem, anecdotally, those children who are often withdrawn and quiet and can sometimes ‘go under the radar’ the need to complete a smaller survey with some identified pupils in KS2, from which needs were identified including enabling these pupils to be able to speak about things they do not agree with, to be able to recognise their own strengths and feel good about themselves, and to learn more calming strategies to help themselves calm down.

This confirms that as a school we feel our pupils would benefit from a sense of achievement and self worth at school, that their successes are recognised and as a result their levels of self esteem can improve.

In choosing this targeted priority we are now able to demonstrate in this Gold Report that we have been able to address national, local and school based data through a focused area of support for these individual pupils which will help their overall development, both personally and academically, throughout KS2. This targeted work will be further complemented through our overall strategic priority to address relationships and behaviour for learning within the targets to achieve our universal outcome as a whole school.

Planned outcome

Increase the %age of pupils reporting that they are sometimes, often or all the time able to speak about things they do not agree with or think are wrong from 58% (14/24) to 79% (19/24)

Increase the %age of pupils reporting that they often or all the time understand their own strengths and that this helps them feel good about themselves from 46% (11/24) to 79% (19/24)

Increase the %age of pupils reporting that they often or all of the time know ways to calm down when they are angry or upset from 29% (7/24) to 75% (18/24)

Outcomes achieved:

Questions: June 2016 Target July 2017 Different from June 2016 They are sometimes, often or all the time able to speak 58% 79% 79% +21% about things they do not agree with or think are wrong

of 15 They often or all the time understand their own strengths 46% 79% 83% +37% and that this helps them feel good about themselves

They often or all of the time know ways to calm down when 29% 75% 83% +54% they are angry or upset

Detailed results:

Our target was to increase the percentage of pupils reporting they sometimes, often or all the time able to speak about things they do not agree with or think are wrong, from 58% to 79% – Target met In June 2016 58% of the targeted group of pupils (14/24) reported they are sometimes, often or all the time able to speak about things they do not agree with or think are wrong. When we repeated the survey in June 2017, 79% of the targeted group of pupils (19/24) agreed with this statement, which is a percentage increase of 36% and means that we achieved our target of 79%.

Our target was to increase the percentage of pupils reporting that they often or all the time understand their own strengths and that this helps them feel good about themselves, from 46% to 79% – Exceeded In June 2016 46% (11/24) of pupils reporting that they often or all the time understand their own strengths and that this helps them feel good about themselves. When we repeated the survey in June 2017 it was reported that 83% (20/24) of pupils agreed with this statement percentage increase of 80% and exceeds the planned target of 79% by +4%

Our target was to increase the percentage of pupils reporting that they often or all of the time know ways to calm down when they are angry or upset, from 29% to 75% – Exceeded In June 2016 29% (7/24) of pupils reported that they often or all of the time know ways to calm down when they are angry or upset. When we repeated the survey in June 2017 it was reported that 83% (20/24) of pupils agreed with this statement which is a percentage increase of 80% and exceeds the planned target of 75% by +8%

Describe how you achieved the outcomes: Before the academic year of 2015/16 had ended the teachers were all asked to highlight any children who would benefit from taking part in an assertiveness group to give them the confidence to share their views in class and around the school. After discussions with teachers and our pastoral carer we selected 24 children to take part in weekly sessions on building their confidence and strategies on how to manage their feelings. The whole group was split into two groups, as we felt the children would benefit working in smaller groups. Our first aim was to give children the confidence to speak clearly and loudly in the group as many of the first sessions were extremely quiet. As the weeks progressed and the children felt more confident in one another’s company their volume had increased. The children in this group attended 30 1x weekly sessions.

We worked hard to make the sessions interactive and engaging, despite the almost silence in the first session, we feel that the nature of the activities we chose engaged the pupils well. They were asked to evaluate their thoughts and feeling in cloud bubbles at the end of each sessions and we used this to plan or direct the following weeks sessions. Initially the children really enjoyed the activities we used to help project their voice. This was an area the children felt extremely uncomfortable with doing. With this being a focus we focus on mirror work where they were addressing and complementing themselves on positive features of themselves. We then expanded this where we complemented one another. This proved to be very effective as many children first found it very hard to complement themselves initially to then complementing themselves and others.

A teacher quoted that “Boy ‘A’ used to be very reluctant to participate in class, but now he puts his had up willingly. Furthermore he’s now loud in class and looks very confident.”

We did a lot of work on identity and work on confidence and how to express themselves.

After meeting with our drama specialist we decided that the second term we would get the children involved on spoken poetry through drama to continue the work they had done. We decided to mix the groups up to allow the children to work and practise the skills they had learnt in front of children they weren’t as familiar with. This was eventually going to build up to children presenting the poetry in assembly.

The pupils were often sent home with activities or skills we wanted them to practise, this helped keep the momentum of the group up where the children were able to share their ideas and strategies within the group. Early in the sessions it was very visible that the children had anxiety issues, we immediately started using many calming strategies to help address their anxieties and help put their worries to the side. The children were really enthusiastic about the weekly sessions and there was a high commitment to the group The link with parents was very positive and they were fully engaged with activities

A teacher who had taught the group said “I learnt that I needed to allow 5 seconds before I expected Frankie to respond with an appropriate answer. It really took me by surprise, I hadn’t realised she needed time to collect her thoughts before she spoke. It was a good learning curve for me personally. I didn’t realise or expect that she would need that time”

At the end of each session the pupils recorded how they found the sessions

C: Analysis of results

Include details of what worked and why

We feel that the small and supportive nature of this group, with children from a range of KS2 classes, had a very positive impact on the children’s ability to work together comfortably. The mix of the types of personalities in this group gelled really well as there wasn’t anyone overly dominant or passive, so they all worked together, took turns, respected each other’s input etc.

The emphasis of this group’s work around feelings was very powerful as they were all able to talk openly and honestly about their feelings, how their feelings change in different scenarios, how other people’s feelings are really important. We finished every session giving the pupils a chance to record their thoughts about the session, what they think worked well for them, what they would like to do more or next time and this really helped to shape the bespoke nature of the work so that it was tailored to, and informed by, the group’s needs.

When we decided to extend the work by linking with our drama specialist, it really allowed the children to come out of their shells and ‘blossom’ within the group. Just be being a large space and having to project their voices was such a powerful way to break inhibitions and have fun with who you are and what you’ve got to say. .They experienced a range of drama, poetry, presentations in this work and by mixing the group up regularly, the children worked in various pairings/groupings which was key in order for them to develop their confidence with others. It was a really positive part of the targeted work. There was a noticeable improvement on confidence to speak out in the group as well as in class.

For these children, the generic RA approaches addressed through the universal priority really helped them manage behaviours well, and the small targeted group work further complemented this by giving them strategies to be able to calm down, particularly in relation to their anxieties about Page 13 of 15 themselves and their abilities in relation to others. The 2 priorities worked very well alongside one another for this group.

One of the key successes to this group was the commitment from the staff running the group – there were 3 members of staff plus the drama specialist, all of whom were completely dedicated and on board in terms of fully supporting these children. They were amazing!!

One child said “I really love this group, I feel like I can be me and no one will laugh”

Another child quoted “I know my ideas will be taken seriously and no one will think I’m being silly”

A parent quoted “I’ve never heard my daughter say she’s good at something. She always used to moan that she wasn’t able to do something. I feel like something’s different with her, she’s a lot happier now”

Include details of what did not work and why

At the beginning of the sessions the children and staff both found it very tricky to compliment themselves. At the very start of the whole process staff were taken aback with how quiet the children were and how reluctant they were to even contribute one sentence within a discussion. The lead teacher was very unsure following the first 1 r two sessions, whether this group was going to work. However with a lot of perseverance, this children slowly began to be more confident, be more vocal, to the point that they took an active role within the group and by the 5th or 6th session 100% of children were responding to the group work. However, we did find that some of the Yr 6 boys lost interest towards the end of the second term, which may have been because they were getting some remarks from children outside the group about them having to go the group. This also corresponded with then they were notified of their new secondary school, so they may have just been more concerned with moving on. We will now be reviewing how long each child works in these smaller groups and for some they may need to work for the full duration, for others they may need to only attend for one term. WE will be flexible in our approach with this from now on.

Unfortunately, we did not do the assemblies as we did not have enough time but on reflection we realised the group may not have been ready or at the stage to do an assembly in front of the whole school. Next year we hope to maybe get them to perform in front of their phase groups so the audience is smaller. To ensure this takes place we have continued the work through the summer term and have staff ready to work with the same additional groups in September.

We didn’t do a talent show, which we had planned, but as the group developed together we realised that because of the wealth of opportunities for positive reinforcement within the sessions about pupil’s strength and abilities, we felt that we did not need to do an additional talent show which would have felt more like an ‘add-on’. It may be if we continue this work next year that it is something they could build up to on a longer term basis as we did not feel we had enough time to get this organised either.

We only realised after we had set up the group that there were 2 siblings in the group and this did impact negatively on one of them, as she did not feel overly comfortable talking about ‘home stuff’ in front of her older brother. We will make sure not to put siblings in the same support groups in

Unintended outcomes/ wider impact:

By the end of the sessions we realised that the children from the assertiveness group, were signing themselves up to be peer mediators. They had developed the confidence to become play supporters. The school would like to continue this next year with different groups Spoken poetry was a really powerful way to build the children’s confidence – this hadn’t been part of the plan but we will definitely use this approach to support targeted intervention groups in future Parents noticing a difference with their child We decided to set up a shorter term targeted group, once we realised how well this group was working, for a smaller group of bereaved children, with a high focus on discussing feelings. As a group of staff we were able to reflect on the pupils using their voices effectively. This was noticeable in class as children were volunteering their ideas more in class in front of the whole group. This was a really positive and surprising unintended outcome that made a real difference for these children in all their classes. As a result of this group couple of children have now volunteered as peer mediators – we strongly feel this would not have been the case without their attendance and participation in this group work.

One child quoted “when I go to parties now I think about what we do in the group and I throw my voice out so I know people will hear me. It’s helped me be louder outside of school and I can share my jokes and my friends think I’m funny.”

Detail changes that have been made to the school and/or local environment

Permanent RA display board being used by all children Zoning in the playground has helped children feel safer Student lead assemblies being held in phases A more visible peer mediation scheme.

D: How activity is being sustained Demonstrate how you intend to share and sustain these activities so they continue beyond the life of this project.

We plan to run the group again involving a new group of children The children who have attended this year will work as play buddies in the playground for the younger children The children who attended this year will run an assembly in the Autumn term to explain what they have done in the group Shorter term intervention groups will now be run on a more bespoke/reactive way as well as the planned targeted group e.g. along the lines of the short term bereavement group we also ran this year.