Nothing is more important to us than your daughter’s wellbeing. We want her to achieve her academic, creative and athletic potential, and we also want her to be happy, self-aware, well-adjusted and fulfilled.
That’s why we’re there for her through every success and failure: the good times and the not-so-good ones too.
We believe that the cornerstone of our pastoral care is creating a healthy sense of self, providing a wellbeing toolkit, promoting kindness and self-compassion, and encouraging your daughter to be the best version of herself.
Because her best will always be enough.
Wellbeing in the Junior School Curriculum
Nurturing resilience in Junior age children is the key building block for their future mental health and happiness and the main aim of our wellbeing programme. In the Junior School, pupils experience a wide range of support with their wellbeing, both in the curriculum and through our enrichment programme. Pupils are encouraged to keep childhood as childhood and to resist marketing and peer group pressure to ‘grow up too soon’.
All teachers are trained in how to encourage a growth mindset in pupils so that they understand how important it is to make mistakes, learn from them and be kind to themselves as well as others. This approach of encouraging pupils to take personal responsibility for their behaviour and their learning engenders positive attitudes to learning not just in the classroom, but also in pupils’ friendships and personal development.
Through our extensive PSHE course and the many other resources we have, we teach pupils to recognise the need for down time, to appreciate nature and the outside world and to spend quality time with their family and friends.
Key to this is the JIGSAW PSHE programme which takes place weekly throughout the year.
Its main themes are:
• Being me in my world
• Celebrating differences
• Dreams and Goals
• Healthy me
• Relationships
• Changing me
In Jigsaw PSHE, mindfulness is developed through the ‘Calm Me’ time in each lesson. This consists of breathing techniques, awareness exercises and visualisation. We use the Jigsaw Chime to help the girls focus and the teacher uses the script to teach the mindful breathing. The PSHE themes for each term are introduced in assembly.
The girls learn to observe their thoughts and feelings, on purpose, in th e present moment with no judgement.
In Lower 2 (Year 5), pupils also have a term of lessons introducing them to neuroscience and mindfulness, including the concepts of individuality, rational thought, optimism and emotional wellness. Pupils learn about different parts of their brain and how feelings interact with thoughts as well as basic mindfulness techniques.
Outside the Classroom
There are many other ways outside lessons where wellbeing can be seen to be at the heart of everything we do. Here are some of them:
• Themed assemblies on wellbeing topics
• Junior School nurse and counsellor
• Pupil workshops on mindful movement and healthy sleep habits
• Wellbeing clubs such as Mindfulness and Yoga
• Each classroom has its own set of emotional literacy books and wellbeing and social skills games
• Worry boxes around school
• The Raising Resilience team of psychologists run regular BOUNCE pupil workshops tailored to each year group’s needs
• Weekly wellbeing form time sessions based on a programme designed for LEH by the Raising Resilience team
• Awareness weeks such as Children’s mental health week, online safety and anti-bullying week
• Parents have access to Tooled Up Education, an online resource base that provides evidencebased resources (webinars, articles and a podcast) for parents and teachers. Their aim is to help develop children into selfconfident, self-sufficient, curious, passionate, digitally skilled, and resilient young adults
• A specific programme for Upper 2 (Year 6) pupils and parents to prepare them for the transition to Senior School
• Wellbeing Day – a whole day off timetable taking part in activities promoting wellbeing
• A focus on developing a sense of community in school where pupils look out for each other, for example through our school ‘big sister’ scheme
• A brief Monday-morning pastoral check-in with each pupil to take the wellbeing temperature of all the pupils
Throughout the School
In Middle School our pupils are supported as they learn to become themselves; in Upper School they are supported as they learn to manage themselves; in Sixth Form they are supported as they launch themselves into their futures. Building from the PSHE foundations laid in the Junior School, the Life Advice programme in Middle School seeks to encourage pupil voice and enhance selfawareness, while the Upper School approach combines themes of engagement, awareness and responsibility, with careers advice. In the Sixth Form there is a varied speaker programme covering a range of relevant and important topics such as drugs awareness, relationships and sexual health.
As the LEH motto says, Hope Favours the Bold. Through this Life Advice programme our pupils acquire mental, intellectual, emotional and moral courage. They learn to feed their passions, to stay curious, to ask for help, to find strength in setbacks and - most importantly - to dare to be different. Insight, empathy, the ability to work with, to support and to lead others - whilst forming and maintaining healthy relationships - increase employability and allow our pupils to flourish in both their personal and professional lives.
To live their best lives.
Planning for the Future
The Sixth Form is a transformative period, filled with personal and intellectual challenges, decisions and deadlines, and is the educational stage where most difference can be made. Our life beyond LEH approach reflects the students’ need to develop an identity with which to face the world of university and work with confidence and integrity. The highly regarded Careers Programme features a range of speakers who are experts in their field, and this provides both guidance and support. Enrichment sessions with Hampton School cover interpersonal skills, thinking skills, boundaries and consent, and provide a unique opportunity to collaborate in a co-ed setting whilst studying in a single sex school.
We recognise how our interactions with others underpin our mental health and impact on our self-esteem, and our Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) programme is bespoke to LEH, and delivered sensitively and age-appropriately by a trusted specialist and a range of speakers. In the current climate, it is more important than ever that we meet and respond to our pupils’ needs so that they are seen and heard. Our aim is to inform, empower and equip students to make informed choices and navigate their present and future emotional lives and loving relationships with self-knowledge and respect for both themselves and others.
Life Advice
The LEH Life Advice programme is a planned, developmental system of lifelong learning through which our pupils acquire the self-knowledge, understanding and skills they need to manage their lives now and in the future. As part of a whole-school PSHE approach, our Life Advice programme underpins everything we do academically; it develops the qualities and attributes our pupils need to thrive as individuals and responsible, mindful members of society. In doing so it prepares them for the world beyond school.
This bespoke programme equips students to lead healthy, safe, productive and balanced lives. It encourages them to be enterprising and supports them in making effective transitions, informed career choices and positive contributions. It provides ample opportunities for them to reflect on and clarify their own values, and use these to navigate their way through an often conflicting and confusing landscape of attitudes and opinions, so that they can respond with a clear and assured voice. It also ensures that all voices are respectfully heard.
Life Skills Acquired
The Life Advice programme aims to teach and encourage the following:
• Responsible decision-making
• Negotiation and team-work
• Self-advocacy and compromise
• Strategies for managing peer influence
• Navigating social media
• Valuing, respecting and celebrating diversity
• Self-organisation and time-management
• Setting of age-appropriate boundaries
• Assessment and management of risk
• Analysis of reliable news sources
• Self-reflection and goal-setting
• Awareness of rights and responsibilities
• Resilience and managing change
• Self-regulation and emotional literacy
• Understanding consent in different contexts
• Recognising individual character strengths
• Clarifying own values and using them as a guide
• Budgeting and financial planning
• Accessing appropriate help and support
• Basic First Aid and self-defence
Mindfulness
The mindfulness programme at LEH is based on the Mindfulness in Schools project (MiSP) .b course and each of our mindfulness teachers have been expertly trained to deliver the specialist curriculum. Studies into the impact of mindfulness on wellbeing have shown that it is effective in helping reduce feelings of anxiety or stress in young people and adults. Our approach allows pupils to explore various mindful activities such as meditation, movement, eating and drawing. We encourage the pupils to learn how to be present in the moment, helping them to develop skills of concentration, focus and calm.
“I’ve found that the skills that we’ve learned in our mindfulness lessons really helped me stay focused and calm during the GCSE period. Having an opportunity during the busy school day to rest our mind really helps us to come back to lessons refreshed.”
A L6 student
A Sixth Former’s View
“Mental health and wellbeing are so important and the stigma around them must be eradicated. LEH’s Wellbeing Programme works very well to encourage that. Taking care of your mental health and wellbeing is vital if you want to flourish, grow and to do the things you want to do. LEH really does make mental health and wellbeing a high priority. The Life Advice programme at LEH is dedicated to ensuring pupils are well aware of their mental health and have a bank of strategies to help. Something I quite vividly remember was mindful breathing, which we were taught in Middle School, and it is something that has been so heavily instilled in us that we will never forget it.
Aside from the Life Advice programme, we have two amazing School Nurses and Counsellors who are available via self-referral at any time. I think pupils enjoy the annual Wellbeing Day the most, where we all come off timetable to focus on finding balance and taking the time to pause. We are provided with an array of activities such as mindful walking, wellbeing jars and the petting zoo - all of the individual sessions informally remind us to help look after ourselves”.
Wellbeing
The Wellbeing Hub is a range of services to help and support our students. Our School Nurses provide constant, cheerful care in the Medical Room.
The Wellbeing Room is a quiet, calming space for students to take a short break if things feel overwhelming. Bookable through the Health Centre, students can use one of the individual pods, checking in to their own private, restful space to just ‘take 5’ from a busy day.
Our kind and calm School Counsellors, are always there to help anyone who needs an extra bit of support to work through difficulties. You can find them in the Wellbeing Room. Our Counsellors produce a Wellbeing Circular for the School Community, filled with helpful advice and useful techniques. In addition, our Sixth Form Peer Mentors work closely with each group to offer big sisterly support and advice when needed.
We’re here to support parents too, because we recognise that raising a teenager can be challenging, especially in these recent unprecedented times. That’s why we have launched our LEH Wellbeing Wednesday lecture series, designed to inform and support young people and their families on a wide range of issues. These are a set of online seminars led by distinguished experts in their field, covering topics related to wellbeing and mental health.
