Well Done Bladon!
The emotional well-being and mental health of students and staff is a primary focus at Bladon House School and this has been officially recognised by the schools’ successful accreditation for the ‘Wellbeing Award for Schools’ from Optimus Education. The school had a final verification visit for the award on the 22nd May 2019.

The process to achieve the award was very rigorous. The school worked to produce a detailed portfolio of evidence to meet eight main objectives and evidence 48 individual key performance indicators.

Evidence surrounded:

• pupil voice
• staff stress management and appraisal processes
• staff training
• reducing the stigma around mental health
• communication with parents
• working with external agencies
• interventions put in place for students.

For Staff

Initiatives to support staff whilst they are at work include termly spa treatments, discounted cinema tickets, yoga sessions onsite, clinical supervisions as well as a staff voice forum which takes place once every half-term.

For Students

Students enjoy art, music and drama therapy. As well as the new recent introduction of therapy dogs onsite, which the students have loved.

For Parents

For parents the school have introduced a parent forum which takes place once a term. These meetings not only give the school another way to communicate with parents, it also allows parents to build a support network with each other.

Of course this is an ongoing process and the school will continue to work hard to maintain the award and the great ethos they have created around emotional well-being and mental health.