Pupil wellbeing has always been a priority in the Trust and that has been highlighted especially in the support that pupils and often their wider families got through the numerous lockdowns and disrupted school experiences.

We are not complacent regarding pupil wellbeing now that we are all back in schools and acknowledge that many of our pupils have had their mental health and wellbeing adversely affected by covid in many ways and that this work is more important than ever.

Pupils across the Trust take part in a termly pupil wellbeing survey, completed in school, to gauge their opinions and thoughts about a range of areas that may affect their wellbeing. Staff then look at the results and create actions that are designed to support their mental health and wellbeing.

Obviously the actions are bespoke for each school and hub and further details will be available from your Academy or Assistant Academy Head, but there are some general development points that many schools are working on:

• an increased focus on teaching pupils about recognising their own mental health symptoms, self care and continuing work about all sorts of healthy relationships. We already have a developed PSHE curriculum which covers this.
• many schools are introducing a 'meet and greet' system for pupils with staff at the start of the day to ensure a welcoming and supportive introduction
• support with an offer of some structured activities during play and lunchtimes, led by pupil playtime buddies who are trained and resourced with equipment
• a broad offer of curriculum enrichment opportunities after school
• enhancing opportunities for 'pupil voice' where they express opinions and have a real impact on decision making at school and Trust level.
• promoting and modelling the positive benefits of making mistakes as part of being resilient and also as an essential part of all our learning processes

I hope this gives you a flavour of some of the work we are explicitly doing but also pupil mental health and wellbeing is threaded through all the work that we do day to day.