At Sinai we want children to be happy, feel safe and able to be engaged in their learning. We maintain the belief that relationships are at the heart of good teaching. Our absolute priority is to reach out and greet our children daily and to build strong home-school links. Staff ensure that time is made to listen to the needs of all children. We pride ourselves in how our teaching builds on the children’s confidence and captures their interest with exciting and engaging topics.
Our Senior Leader for Wellbeing, Mrs Lane, is a trained mental health first aider and overseas Wellbeing across the school for staff and children.
All staff are tasked with ensuring the children are happy as this is essential part to every child's success.
From the moment the children come into school the children’s pastoral care is of upmost importance. We offer a breakfast club for children from Nursery to Year 6 and this is run by Mrs Solomon’s who is also a trained mental health first aider. Mrs Solomon’s is available for children throughout the day to support them with their learning and social and emotional needs.
Many of our staff are trained Mental Health Champions and they ensure that the information they learnt on their training forms an integral part of their teaching each day. Staff across the school use mindfulness techniques during the day and allow children to have sensory breaks when necessary.
Children at Sinai are encouraged to understand their emotions and each year group and class uses the Zones of Regulation to help manage and regulate their own behaviour.
We welcome external agencies to come in and provide support for children and whether that is speech and language therapy, Occupational Therapy or 1:1 therapy.
Children have regular access to our state of the art sensory room and this can be accessed by any child who has the need to use it and our beautiful Wellbeing Garden.
Unlocking Potential
Unlocking Potential is a therapeutic service we use at Sinai. The service provides us with 1:1 therapists who work with a number of children from across the school and provides a team manager to oversee the service across our school. The team manager conducts weekly check-ins with children, provides a wellbeing group and also responds to children who self-refer using the 'Speak UP' post box in our main reception area. The team manager also provides short bursts of therapeutic support for individual children in a session called 6xTalkTime.
We take pride in referring children to the service from the school but also work closely with parents who share an interest in using the service.
Unlocking Potential also provide parent support to those who have children accessing the 1:1 therapeutic service.
THRIVE
Thrive is based on a Social Emotional Mental Health curriculum where we look at the children's social and emotional mental health and how they can gain skills to take back to the classroom and ultimately help them to thrive in their lessons.
Thrive sessions currently are open for year 5 but we would aim to eventually open it out to the rest of KS2.
Throughout each half term we explore a different topic ranging from flexible thinking, understanding ourselves, choices and responsibilities as well as growth and the future. Giving children these life skills will enable them to have the tools to nagivate often complex and challenging social and emotional situations that arrive both in and out of the classroom and that can at times hinder their abilities to access learning in the classroom.
Another unique and important aspect of the provision is the involvement and constant link with the children's class teachers and parents. In order for change to happen there is open communication and transparencies between what is happening in the provision and what is happening in the classroom and home. The children are set targets created by the THRIVE lead and the class teacher which are assessed both in the provision and in class to be able to track and monitor the children's progress.
School Therapy Dogs
We are very lucky to have 2 wonderful therapy dogs visiting Sinai each week. Ralph and Smartie are both 'Pets as Therapy' dogs and are specially trained to visit hospitals and care homes. We are very lucky that they also visit our school to boost the children's confidence and listen to them read.
If you want to discuss any area of Wellbeing at Sinai then please do reach out directly to Mrs Lane who will be happy to speak with you. llane@sinai.brent.sch.uk
