Solent Infant School is a place where the positive mental health of everybody is at the heart of all that we do. This is underpinned by a strong culture of equality of opportunity for all. Visitors often comment upon this being the first thing that they feel as they are welcomed into our school community. We recognise and embrace the fact that we are all in a fortunate enough position to be able to do so much to support our community and bring about positive change.

Our approach is initially a preventative one; a universal approach, which focuses upon stopping mental health from deteriorating in the first place. Even the smallest of actions, with our youngest pupils, can make a significant difference later on; creating a ripple that will last a lifetime.

Our school is a warm and caring environment within which adults and pupils thrive and learn together, feeling confident and comfortable talking about mental health and knowing where to turn for support if they are experiencing mental ill health. They feel able to be themselves in the secure knowledge that their needs will be met.

Our guiding principle is clear; a happy, safe, warm and predictable environment is one where we will all thrive, flourish and grow.
This approach is underpinned by our 6 core values, developed and shared by our whole school community:

Friendship
Teamwork
Respect
Responsibility
Perseverance
Aspiration

Additional Support
We recognise that there will be times at which mental health needs can begin to interfere with usual day-to-day functioning. At this point, we work closely with our pupils and their families to consider how additional intervention could support them. This might be provided by our highly skilled ‘Lighthouse Room’ team in school, or may involve support from outside agencies where more appropriate. The strong and positive relationships with our families, that we value and treasure so much, enable us to work closely together to find the bespoke support to best meet the needs of the individual child.

If you become at all worried about your child’s mental health, please make contact with us via the ‘contact us’ tab on the Family support page of the school website.