At Burlington Infant and Nursery School we make every effort to meet the wellbeing needs of our children and families. We aim to provide the social and emotional nurture and support that our children and families need and work with a range of professionals to do so.
Our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant is trained to support our children in understanding and regulating their emotions whilst learning to understand the emotions of those around them.
Our Drama Therapist gives focus children the opportunity and safe space to tell their stories, set goals, express feelings and over time, solve problems.
Our Family Outreach Worker supports our children, with parental consent, in peer massage. By including peer massage in our school day, we aim to bring a feeling of balance and harmony to our children. The benefits of peer massage include relaxation and a reduction in stress levels, improved concentration, learning respect for peers and increased self-esteem.
Evidence shows that there is a close association between childhood wellbeing and positive family relationships and for this reason we offer ten week, Family Links parenting courses to our families. These are run by our Inclusion Leader and Family Outreach Worker who are then available, on site, to support our families in moving forwards.
Please have a look at our Positive Parenting page where our Family Outreach Worker shares some parenting tips.
Positive Parenting
Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
Our school has access to the MHST (Mental Health Support Teams). The MHST is a school based CAMHS offer for early intervention and prevention work to support positive mental health and wellbeing. The team works in partnership with local schools to offer a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing.
They work within both primary and secondary schools across the borough providing evidence-based interventions to support children and young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties. They work closely with our Mental Health Lead to develop our whole school approach to mental health, providing consultations and sign-posting guidance.
If you feel concerned about your child’s mental health please contact Mrs Docwra via the school office or by emailing admin@burlingtoni.org.uk
To learn more about what the MHST is, please visit their website.
In our school, the MHST can work with parents to support children with mild to moderate anxiety or behavioural difficulties and offer regular parent webinars on a range of topics linked to children’s emotional wellbeing. They also offer groups for children around issues such as Resilience, Friendships or Transition to new / Junior schools.
If you would like to mke a parent self-referral for your child's emotional needs to be discussed with your school in a consultation, please follow this link.
The MHST also hold regular coffee mornings in our schools - these are advertised through our Friday newsletter.
Information sheets to help you with your child's emotional and mental wellbeing
How to make a referral to CAMHS?
Zones of Regulation slides for parents
Here is a link to some slides from the presentation that our Emotional Wellbeing Practitioner gave to our parents. It includes some helpful tips for helping children to talk about and regulate their feelings and emotions.
Encouraging Good Behaviour
Praise and Reward
Self Worth
Emotional Wellbeing
Transition to new school or class
As September approaches, children and parents will start to think about the upcoming changes of joining a new school, or moving to a new class as they progress through Infants. These transitions may pass smoothly or they may cause children to ask questions and feel a little apprehensive.
Here are some useful documents to help you prepare for the transition, whether your child is joining our Nursery, starting in Reception or moving up to a new year's classroom:
Introduction to Nursery for new parents starting in September 2024
Introduction to Reception for new parents starting in September 2024
Welcome to Year 1 for our current Reception parents whose children will join Year 1 in September 2024
Welcome to Year 1 presentation for parents
Welcome to Year 2 for our current Year 1 parents whose children will join Year 2 in September 2024
Welcome to Year 2 presentation for parents
Information sheets for Nursery and Reception new starters:
Information sheets for any child going through transitions, at school or otherwise, as well as new starters:
Behaviour Workshop for Parents
Please find attached resources to help parents/carers manage difficult behaviour from their children. There are 4 sections to this pre-recorded workshop. You can view these as a pdf below:
Behaviour Workshop for Parents, Part 1
Behaviour Workshop for Parents, Part 2
Behaviour Workshop for Parents, Part 3
Behaviour Workshop for Parents, Part 4
Information sheets to help you with your child's physical wellbeing and health
Healthy Eating
Sugar Swaps
Portion Sizes
Daily Fluid Intake
Common Childhood Illnesses
Headlice
Night Time Wetting
Sleep
Here is some useful information on sleep for primary school aged children. It is important to adopt healthy sleep routines to manage the early morning starts for school days.
Sleep Workshop slides
Washing your hands is one of the best ways to protect yourself and others from illnesses such as food poisoning and flu. The NHS have created a helpful video to show children how to wash their hands.
Video on How to Wash Your Hands
If parents would like advice on how to manage a minor illness such as diarrhoea or vomiting, they can consult a pharmacist. For urgent but non-life-threatening medical conditions, parents can contact NHS 111, either online for children over five years old and via phone for those under five. Sometimes it can be difficult to make a judgement on whether your child should come to schoool if there are unwell. We have some general guidelines on our Attendance web page:
Attendance web page