Emotional Health Curriculum at Kensington Primary

Why Emotional Health?
Teaching about emotional health is vital: it will promote children's wellbeing through an understanding of their own and other emotions and the development of healthy coping strategies. It will also contribute to safeguarding, providing pupils with knowledge, understanding and strategies to keep themselves healthy and safe, as well as equipping them to support others who are facing challenges. Supporting children’s emotional well-being is highly important, if not supported it can cause problems later on in life. Learning about mental health must build up from a young age for it to be most effective. 

What is the Emotional Health Curriculum?
The emotional health curriculum is made up of 3 key areas: Myself; My Surroundings, and My Place In Society. These are sub-divided into a further six: My Rights; My Safety; My Emotions; My Relationships; My Learning, and My Place In Society. These were carefully selected by our experts in the field. They cover all the statutory requirements by the DfE which state that teaching about mental health and emotional wellbeing is vital. 

My Rights
This area will develop an understanding of the themes of democracy, individual liberty, rule of law and mutual respect. The 'fundamental British values' that the DfE and Ofsted are asking schools to promote are:  democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. This will give children a sense of belonging in Britain and develop understanding that while they can make choices in their lives they also have a sense of responsibility for supporting the freedoms of others. This work can help children develop an understanding that the law is there to protect all and we all have to abide by the law. They will understand what rights they have and why they are there to protect them. It will include a steady focus on helping children make connections to others, explore and understand diversity, similarities and difference, and promote and champion equality for all.  

My Safety
This area will focus on personal and online safety. Children will learn about who is seen as a 'safe adult' in everyday life and in authority, this will be linked to feelings and being able to understand what feeling safe is and who to report to when we are not feeling safe. Computing will also be a key area in this section: how to be safe online, whilst using social media to understanding the dangers of online grooming.

My Emotions
My Emotions is about teaching the children the language necessary to express the emotion they experience. They will learn what emotions cause certain feelings from happiness to sadness which progress into more complex feelings such as anxiety, envy and frustration by year 6. They will learn about the physiological response of the body to an emotion and how we can manage these using mindfulness techniques. This will further equip them with regulation tools to support others. They will also understand that to lead a healthy life, physical and mental well-being needs to be in sync with each other.

My Relationships
My Relationships is about understanding what a healthy relationship is. Understanding what healthy friendships are, how to develop these and resolve conflicts. It will further look at family relationships, understanding respect, love and marriages in different cultures /families. What is seen as a positive and negative relationship and understanding the boundaries and feelings that we have in different relationships.

My Learning
My Learning is about 'thinking like a learner'. This section will teach children to understand how they feel about their learning and what they can do to become an even better and stronger learner. This will link into growth mindset and the learning powers.  They will learn how to think and talk like a learner, instill and build resilience, learning to recognise strengths in themselves and others and how to master these strengths to overcome any fears they have. They will understand which feelings arise when we challenge and succeed at learning (endorphins, adrenaline). This will further lead onto them making a link to physical and emotional well-being and how a correct balance of both can make them the best learners.

My Place In Society
My Place In Society will be social action projects which will be carried out once in the year.