Emotional Health and Wellbeing
At Thornham St.James Primary School we are committed to promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing to all children, their families and members of staff.
We believe that good social, emotional and mental wellbeing lays the foundations for healthy minds and a capacity to learn.
Our overall intention is for all pupils in school to develop the self-esteem, resilience and emotional understanding to be able to play an active part in school life, becoming effective and successful learners and friends.
We are proud to share that we are a MyHappy Mind school.
Grounded in positive psychology and neuroscience, myHappymind is a whole school approach that aims to develop resilient, confident, independent children and enables them to understand how to keep mentally healthy.
It helps children to:
- Feel happier
- Know what to do when they feel worried or stressed
- Improve their focus and learn more
- Achieve more of the goals that they set for themselves
- Develop better relationships with friends and families
- Feel great about who they are and have positive self esteem
The myHappymind resources for parents can be accessed online or via their free app. These resources will support parents to further embed the learning and ensure that they are able to engage in these topics with their child. https://myhappymind.org/parent-resources
The Oldham Whole School Emotional Health and Mental Wellbeing Framework 'Supporting young minds through tough times' is the guidance school follows, in order to embed a whole school approach to emotional health and mental wellbeing and provide awareness, guidance and support.
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Early Help
Anyone can use this form to make a referral to Oldham’s Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH team) when there are individuals or families needing support from the Early Help team or when there are children or young people needing support for mental health issues.
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TOG MIND
Tameside, Oldham and Glossop MIND are a charity that support children and families in our area. They hold a drop in session on Thursday evenings at the Positive Steps building in Oldham town centre. You do not need an appointment to take your child, should you have any concerns about their emotional health and mental wellbeing. You can call them on 0161 330 9223. |
The Anna Freud Talking Mental Health Tools
This website provides lots of information for children, young people, parents and teachers. There are lots of resources and animations to help us learn how to talk about mental health.
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Youth Wellbeing Directory
Click on this link to find services available near you.
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MIND Charity
MIND is a mental health charity with a useful website filled with ideas for support, including mindfulness.
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Young Minds
Another mental health charity with lots of information and ideas.
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Click on the link to download information on how to support young minds through tough times.
Supporting Young Minds - The whole school and college approach
OPAL Primary Programme
In 2023 Thornham St James began its participation in the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme – an award-winning, mentor supported school improvement programme which is endorsed and supported by Sport England. OPAL is the only programme of its kind that has been independently proven to sustainably improve the quality of play in British primary schools.
At Thornham St James we recognise that play is an integral part of a happy and healthy childhood. With playtimes making up 20% of the school day, we believe in providing consistently high-quality, sustainable play opportunities for all children. These inclusive opportunities in play are achieved by offering carefully considered outdoor spaces, equipment, and toys that offer a rich choice of accessible play experiences for every child. At Thornham St James, we are firmly committed to using our school vision and play policy to guide our planning and actions in providing play opportunities for children. We believe play has a vital role in children’s health, happiness, and well-being. It creates children who are independent, confident, imaginative, adaptable, social and able to assess risks. These skills link closely to our core values: Community, Creativity, Wisdom, Service, Compassion and Thankfulness which were developed to encourage and teach essential life skills across the whole school day.
Better-quality play leads to happier children and happier staff. With better-quality play opportunities, there are fewer behaviour problems, a more positive attitude to school and improved skills development and learning. As the children improve their quality of play and have more enriching play times, there are fewer accidents and classroom learning is enhanced as the children come in from play happy and ready to learn.
Our children have access to a wide range of materials, which they can use in their play. These include tyres, crates, pallets, mud, wheeled toys and much more. Through regular play assemblies, they are taught about dynamic risk assessments and playing co-operatively with others.
If you walk around our playground at any lunchtime, you will see children climbing, testing their strength, playing in the sandpit, dancing, dressing up, playing in role, chasing, jumping over tyres, developing new skills, negotiating with others and being completely immersed in play. It is truly wonderful!
We continually develop our play provision to ensure it is the best it can be, and we are always seeking further loose parts and materials which children can use in their play, with the support of our school family and local community.
We are seeking items such as:
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Suitcases of any size and type
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Anything on wheels/castors
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Plastic milk crates/supermarket delivery crates/plastic bread trays
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Briefcases, especially hard cased ones
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Road signs, cones, hi-viz and hard hats
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Kitchen pots, pans, baking trays, work tables, wooden spoons, chopping boards
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Tools like small spades/shovels, trowels and brooms
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Tubes of various sizes and various materials
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Buckets
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Nets and thick ropes
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Keyboards/torches/laptops/calculators/mobile phones/desk phones/webcams/cameras that are no longer working
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Fabric (large sheets/brightly coloured fabric)
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Foam sheets/bodyboards/camping roll mats/yoga mats
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Wooden pallets
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Metal frames
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Cable drums
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Guttering
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Noodles (the type you use in the swimming pool!)
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Hats/scarves/jazzy shirts/elasticated skirts/waistcoats/wedding dresses/character costumes
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Pegs (to help to set up dens)
 If you have any items that you are looking to get rid of, please consider donating to us. 
We follow advice from the Health and Safety Executive, who support active play in schools.
"HSE fully recognises that play brings the world to life for children. It provides for an exploration and understanding of their abilities; helps them to learn and develop; and exposes them to the realities of the world in which they will live, which is a world not free from risk but rather one where risk is ever present. The opportunity for play develops a child’s risk awareness and prepares them for their future lives. (From the Health and Safety Executive’s Children’s play and leisure - promoting a balanced approach.)"
 
Children’s Charter
The UN convention on the Rights of the Child Article 31 makes it a legal obligation for state parties to enact the UN convention. All children and young people have the right to play and need to play; free to choose what they do – lively or relaxed, noisy or quiet – with the chance to stretch and challenge themselves, take risks and enjoy freedom. The right to play is enshrined in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A charter is our promise to you about how we will meet our legal and moral obligations to respect your rights.
We have the responsibility to make sure everyone enjoys playtime by making sure:
• Everyone has a choice in play
• We share equipment fairly and kindly
• We take care of our equipment
• We learn through our play
• We keep everybody safe
• We help others if they need us
• We build friendships and dens
• We ask trusted adults if we need help to sort out our problems
• We listen to one and another
• We manage our own risk
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We treat others how we wish to be treated.
You can read our Play Charter below:
| Name | Format | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Files | |||
| OPAL Play Charter.pdf | |||
Play Types.
There are a number of different play types which provide everyone with a common language for describing play, and which we endeavour to cater for by providing a variety of natural and man-made resources to allow the children to be inspired and creative at playtimes:
Locomotor play: running, jumping and other physical movements.
Creative play: engaging in activities like art, music and building.
Exploratory play: discovering and investigating the environment.
Rough and tumble play: physical play with touching, tickling and gauging strength.
Imaginative play: role-playing, acting out scenarios and using imagination.
Social play: interacting with peers, collaborating and building relationships.
Symbolic play: using objects and actions to represent something else.
Mastery play: focusing on a specific skill or activity and becoming proficient in it.
Object play: manipulating and using objects in different ways.
Deep play: engaging in activities that require a significant amount of focus and concentration.
Communication play: developing language skills through play.
Dramatic play: acting out stories and scenarios.
Socio-dramatic play: social interactions within a play context.
Recapitulative play: repeating and refining play activities.
You can watch a video from OPAL here:
Here is just a snippet of what our community has to say about OPAL:
Child Year 3: " I love using all the space and playing in the den,"
Child Year 4: " I love playing in the sandpit and mud kitchen, I just love getting messy."
Parent: "OPAL has transformed playtimes into meaningful learning experiences. My child has become more creative and enjoys exploring new ideas with friends."
Parent: OPAL has transformed playtimes into meaningful learning experiences. My child has become more creative and enjoys exploring new ideas with friends."
Staff member: "Play is at the heart of children's wellbeing, and it's a privilege to see their confidence, creativity, and friendships flourish through OPAL."
Staff member: "The best part of my role is seeing children thrive in spaces that encourage exploration and imagination. By developing engaging play areas, we're supporting not only their physical development but also their emotional wellbeing, confidence, and social skills."
