Working to improve the social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in Cornwall

Cornwall Schools’ Wellbeing Hub Newsletter 11th July 2025

Friday 11th July 2025

Welcome to the Wellbeing Newsletter

Welcome to the wellbeing update. 

We’ve been thinking all things ‘safety’ this week. Partly as we’re in the middle of a PBs 2 Day training course which has understanding felt safety at its heart and aims to provide children and young people with skills to recognise what safety feels and looks like and to recognise when they feeling unsafe (Early Warning Signs) and how to act in response. 

A recent publication from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation on Harmful Sexual Behaviours (see below) is essentially about feeling safe / unsafe. One of the particularly concerning findings before the interventions were put into place was that pupils felt unsafe to report what was happening to them. 

One of the interventions used in schools and found to be effective was Protective Behaviours training for staff and students. 

As the long summer holiday approaches next week’s newsletter (last of this school year) will focus on summer safety and wellbeing.

 

Don’t forget you can now access this and previous newsletters on the website

 

Wellbeing Training with Headstart Kernow

 

New Dates for Grandma on the Moon next term

Details / Dates Venues

Grandma on the Moon 

Find details of all our training, including webinar recordings & on-demand interactive modules, on the Headstart Kernow website

Headstart Kernow training 

 

Have you joined the Headstart Kernow Creative Education membership yet? 

Sign up here: www.headstartkernow.org.uk/creative-education/

Download our updated Creative Education membership information fliers with access links for:

Creative Education fliers

 

External organisations - training coming up.

 

Trauma Informed Consultancy Services (TICS) 

Training brochure July – December 2025

 

UK Trauma Council Insight Series - From Awareness to Action: Embedding Trauma-Informed Practice in Everyday Work

This webinar explores how organisations and practitioners can move beyond awareness to meaningful action, ensuring that trauma-informed approaches are fully integrated into policy, service delivery and workplace culture.

Aims of this session:

  • To better equip all those supporting children and young people exposed to trauma
  • To increase knowledge, skill and confidence among professionals and carers
  • To share the latest research and thinking to support best practice

17 July 2025 17:00-18:30 (£10.00)

More information and booking

 

 


News / Resources / Updates

 

Transition Mission

Head to our website to order Transition Mission booklets (free) 

We also have some more resources centring on Transition:

For school staff 

For parents and carers

(See Pooky resource for parents and carers below and the Wellbeing Book of the Week review) 

 

Thrive UK: Helping autistic pupils navigate transitions: 

BLOG Preparing for the new school year By Laura Nicholson

As we approach the end of the school year, many children and young people are preparing for significant changes, whether that’s moving up a year group, transitioning to a new teacher, or making the jump from primary to secondary school. For autistic pupils, these transitions can feel less like exciting milestones and more like unpredictable leaps into the unknown…

Read more 

 

SENDCOs Who Have ADHD: Ideas To Combat Overwhelm

(and really useful for the rest of too…) 

An interesting blog by Lisa Christopher on the Positive Young Minds website. Based on lived experience it is full of practical ideas and suggestions that may help us all cope with overwhelm. 

Read here

 

Schools in Mind – July Newsletter

Self-care summer toolkit

Two toolkits - one for primary schools, one for secondary schools & FE settings - with resources to help support and boost mental wellbeing over the summer and beyond.

 

 

Time 2 Move Holiday Activity Programme 

Summer Bookings for this superb programme are now live. 

All the information for parents and carers can be found here

Time 2 Move

 

New from Beacon House

How Does Trauma Affect Children's Learning?

Written by Julie Neale, a psychotherapist and teacher, our new free resource explores how early adverse experiences impact learning in the present.

Learn how development can be disrupted and what that might look like in the classroom and what might help support children who need it.

View on Beacon House website

Download PDF

 

Harmful Sexual Behaviour

Lucy Faithfull Foundation

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has published a new report on the Everyone’s Safer project, a three-year project supporting schools across the UK to prevent harmful sexual behaviour (HSB). The Foundation worked with schools, including staff, students and parents, to identify strategies for tackling HSB and creating safer school environments. 

Key findings from schools involved in the project include: 

  • sexualised bullying and language were routine, especially in Years 8 to 10; 
  • online coercion and image sharing were major concerns; and 
  • students feared reporting due to shame, disbelief, or lack of action. 

Recommendations include the need for more training, resources and support for safeguarding leads to manage HSB and a whole-school, public health approach to prevention. 

Read the report: Keeping everyone safer in schools: what we’ve learnt from working with more than 240 schools to prevent harmful sexual behaviour

Find out more about the project: Everyone’s Safer schools project

In the work Protective Behaviours training was found to be an effective intervention as part of an overall approach. 

 

PSHE update

PSHE Association

Have recently introduced a new resource (for members only) for primary mental health and wellbeing education. The Foundations for Wellbeing resource for Reception, KS1 and KS2 is intended to support 4 – 11-year-olds to understand and manage emotions. It aims to give children lifelong self-regulation strategies. 

Non members can get a flavour of the resources by downloading free posters, watching free animations on breathing, and calming. 

Find out more here and look out for our review in the new school year. 

PSHE Sensory Toolkit: Activity Ideas for Pupils with SEND (KS1-4)

Another recently released resource which, again, is for members only.

This sensory toolkit is designed to support teachers to plan engaging and meaningful PSHE education activities for pupils with SEND, especially those with complex and multiple needs, including sensory processing challenges. The activities engage the senses in a range of different ways and encourage experimentation with the different senses.

With contributions from Cornwall’s Special Partnership Trust.

Find out more

 

News from Pooky Knightsmith

DOWNLOAD: Prompts for Supporting Anxious Children

This new resource is all about the words we reach for in tricky moments—when a child is anxious, shut down, overwhelmed, or just not able to tell us what's going on.

It’s not a script to follow line by line, but a gentle guide to help us connect more meaningfully, especially when emotions are high and words are hard.

I’ve included helpful (and not-so-helpful) phrases across six key areas:

  • School-based anxiety
  • Food and mealtimes
  • Shutdowns and situational mutism
  • Friendship wobbles
  • Overwhelm and meltdowns
  • Repairing after a rupture

Each section explains why these phrases work and how they can help a child feel safe, understood, and less alone.

Please feel free to use, adapt, or share this resource in any way that supports the children you care about.

Download PDF

 

STEM4 - Youth Mental Health Day 

19th September 2025 

To help you mark Youth Mental Health Day (19th September), we’ve created a range of free, ready-to-use materials for schools, youth organisations, and professionals.

These resources are designed to encourage young people to think about how they give and receive support for their mental health

Free Resources Now Live

 

Brand new financial education resources just launched

The Just Finance Foundation have just launched the new and improved 5 Big Questions resources — a practical, values-led toolkit that’s already reaching children in hundreds of primary schools and alternative provision settings across the UK.

It’s an important step forward for our mission: to equip future generations with meaningful financial education for life.

Find out more / download the resources

Why share resources on financial resources in a wellbeing newsletter? Because ‘having enough money to live’ is one of the Basic Resilient Moves in the Boingboing Resilience Framework which is a brilliant way to help children’s wellbeing and is about as far removed from ‘grit’ as you can get. 

The Resilience Framework is a key part of our support for a whole school approach to wellbeing. Find out more about the framework, our on demand bitesize introduction and resources for young people:

https://www.headstartkernow.org.uk/for-prof/resilience/

https://www.startnowcornwall.org.uk/its-ok/resilience/resilience-pillars/

 

LGBTQ+ children and young people

Research in Practice has published a briefing on the experiences of LGBTQ+ children and young people. The briefing looks at how practitioners can support LGBTQ+ children and young people and sets out information on the use of language; care experienced young people and intersectionality; and messages from research and practice. 

Read the briefing: Supporting children and young people who identify as LGBTQ+: frontline briefing (2025)  

 

Free / low-cost wellbeing resources for schools 

Excellent free / low cost Social and Emotional Learning resources can be found on some of our very favourite websites:

Whole Hearted School Counseling – brilliant blogs, fab freebies and low cost resources that worth purchasing

Anita who ‘is’ WHSC has been creating some fabulous resources recently. 

A recent series of blogs with additional resources have covered some really important areas for supporting young people in engaging and fun ways.

Anita has also been posting some excellent brief wellbeing snapshots for young people and parents via Instagram

ELSA Support

Again, lots to love with a terrific bank of free downloads and low-cost resources. 

Latest freebie is Saying No Teen mini booklet 

Be Happy Resources 

Resources to buy and subscriptions to access everything on site but always a free resource or two each week.

This week ‘I Can Say No, Thank You

 

Any other sites you are aware of and would recommend?

 

Digital Resilience Tools and Resources 

Was that okAs part of our overall website refresh, we have updated / improved the digital resilience tools / resources and added some new ones. There are tools for professional, parents and carers and young people themselves. Recent additions include:

  • SEND Digital Resilience Guidance
  • Was that, OK? tool for young people.
  • Podcast Series for young people

Explore these and all the digital resilience resources

 

Have you visited our new www.headstartkernow.org.uk website yet? 

Headstart Kernow redesign

We are delighted to let you know that our refreshed and redesigned website went live recently. We made it simpler to find what you need as professionals supporting children and families need as well adding a new, more prominent area for parents and carers

Have a look and let us know what you think!