Cornwall Schools’ Wellbeing Hub Newsletter 20th June 2025
Friday 20th June 2025
Welcome to the Wellbeing Newsletter
Welcome to the wellbeing update.
What’s ‘love’ got to do with teaching?
Not the usual headline expected in the TES but certainly attention grabbing. The author (a secondary school philosophy teacher) asks do you have to like your students or even ‘love’ them to be a good teacher?
You can sense an unease about using the word ‘love’ in this context (and the author refers to getting ‘the weird and awkward bits out the way first’) but he goes on to look at what ‘pedagogical love’ might be defined.
Language is fascinating. Just before reading the article a colleague was telling me about ‘The Authentic Warmth Framework’ and how it could help tackle attendance issues. In talking about the AWF we wondered how people might respond to ‘authentic warmth’ and whether some might find it off putting (in a similar way to how ‘trauma Informed’ was initially received with ‘trauma’ being considered an uncomfortable word in the school context, especially when compared to ‘Thrive’ at the time).
What matters surely is that – whether you call it ‘love’ ‘authentic warmth’ or ‘trauma informed’ or… they all have essentially the same approach (creating felt safety, connections relationships (with emotionally available adults) and a sense of belonging) with the same purpose (children and young people who come to school and thrive in and out of the classroom and beyond?
Do you have to like your students or even ‘love’ them to be a good teacher? Here’s the article
LAST CHANCE Child Poverty in Cornwall – Children and Young People's voice
The Director of Public Health is focusing on child poverty in their Annual Report this year and they are keen to shine the spotlight on the voices / experiences of children and young people as well gathering the views of professionals working with children and families on how poverty affects children and the impact that managing the symptoms of poverty has on their organisation.
- Help PH explore and capture children's understanding of health and happiness (deadline 27th June)
Don’t forget you can now access this and previous newsletters on the website
Wellbeing Training with Headstart Kernow
Protective Behaviours 2 Day Foundation Training
Fridays 4th / 11th July 09.30 – 16.00
St Erme Community Centre, nr Truro
Felt safety is key to connection / belonging / learning and achievement
PBs helps C&YP understand felt safety and gives them strategies recognise when they are feeling ‘safe’ / ‘unsafe’ and what to do if feeling unsafe.
Find out more / book (free)
New Dates for Grandma on the Moon next term
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:
External organisations - training coming up.
Schools in Mind
How can schools and colleges help young people form healthy relationships in a digital world?
We know that it can be challenging to know how to support young people to form and maintain healthy relationships, particularly in the context of the increasing popularity of digital spaces.
Join us on 18 June (16.30 – 18.00) for an interactive webinar, which will help education staff and other professionals who work with children and young people to support the development of healthy peer relationships.
The session will also help you identify signs that a student is being negatively affected by their peer relationships, as well as support you to understand how to look after both your wellbeing and that of your colleagues when navigating these difficult situations and conversations.
More information / Booking (cost involved)
Free Webinar from Thrive UK
Supporting the wellbeing of autistic children in the mainstream classroom
9th July | 16:00-16:45 BST
Led by Laura Nicholson, Thrive’s Practice & Innovation Developer and parent of an autistic child, alongside Viv Trask-Hall, Thrive’s Head of Innovation, this session brings together professional expertise and lived experience to explore:
- Common barriers autistic pupils face - and strategies to reduce them.
- How to nurture supportive peer relationships and communication
- Creating sensory-friendly, inclusive learning spaces
- Supporting pupils experiencing anxiety and managing transitions
- How Thrive’s tools and training can support your practice
Dr Lisa Cherry (TICS) Circles and Threads; Trauma Informed Record Keeping
1st July 2025 (online). Cost involved.
For foster carers, social workers and those in education responsible for writing records.
It is an insightful, interactive, connection space. Using a trauma informed lens, we'll explore how records have the capacity to heal the reader long after their time in care.
Another course from Lisa Cherry - Cultivating Belonging: A Model for Practice 2025 (Cost involved)
Brand new for 2025 - A conceptual model to weave a web of belonging in practice!
Cultivating belonging into our practice can sometimes feel like a tick box exercise; something that we know we should do but without any knowledge of a cohesive way of doing it.
Drawing from Dr Lisa Cherry's research on belonging and written about in her book Weaving A Web of Belonging, this full day session will guide you through the why, the when and the how of incorporating a conceptual model into your practice.
You will leave the day with a clear plan of how to apply her FACES, SPACES, PLACES model into your practice, slides from the day, a toolkit to audit and develop practice, alongside various downloadable items to support your Cultivating Belonging into Practice Plan. This event is suitable for anyone wanting to develop a practice of belonging into their setting, service or system and to deepen understanding of the impact of unbelonging for so many who are then left feeling as though they are invisible and that they don't matter.
Meet colleagues from around the country and draw on collaborative minds across sectors and let's create!
When? - 3rd September 2025 9.30 - 3.45
Where? - Online – Zoom
Your Host: Dr Lisa Cherry
Brook Cornwall Training
Brook Cornwall are pleased to announce more upcoming training sessions.
If you are interested, please click on the Eventbrite links below and register your interest.
There will be more information about the session via Eventbrite.
Upcoming Brook training sessions:
RSE for young people with SEND
Designed for participants to understand the importance of inclusive PSHE for young people with SEND.
Date: 6th August 2025, from 10am to 4pm
RSE for Foster Carers Training
Designed for participants to understand the importance of at home RSE for young people.
Date: 15th, 16th, and 17th July 2025, from 10am to 12pm (you must attend all three dates)
Date: 14th, 15th, and 16th October 2025, from 10am to 12pm (you must attend all three dates)
SHIC (Sexual Health in the Community) Training
An introduction to sexual health for professionals working with young people.
Date: 11th August 2025, from 10am – 2pm
Date: 17th November 2025, from 10am – 2pm
RSE for Facilitators Training: Pornography and Youth Produced Sexual Imagery
Date: 22nd September 2025, from 1 to 4pm:
C-Card Training
For organisations/professionals wishing to learn or upskill and refresh their knowledge on the Cornwall C-Card Scheme
NEW: Dates: 10th September 2025, from 1pm – 3pm
REFRESHER: Dates: 22nd July 2025, from 9:30am – 10:30am
REFRESHER: Dates: 10th November 2025, from 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Date: 17th November 2025, from 10am – 2pm
News / Resources / Updates
Exams and Transition support
Find advice and information for YP from YP on both exams season (including SATS) and transition via the Start Now website.
Head to our website to order Transition Mission booklets (free)
Young Minds Update - getting young people through exam season
Stress bucket activity – help young people identify what exactly is causing them stress and the things they can do to reduce it.
Mindfulness activities – help young people calm their heightened emotions and cope with anxiety.
For more tips and advice on managing exam time, check out our guides for parents/carers and professionals.
The SEAL Community
The SEAL Community Website is one of our favourite websites for all things Social and Emotional Learning…
As well as being home to the entire collection of SEAL resources it a super collection of information / resources about SEL from one of the country’s leading experts in the field, Jean Gross.
Calling all ELSAs and Trauma Informed Schools Practitioners
On the SEAL website here you’ll find a new guide How to get the best from the SEAL Community: for ELSAs and TIS practitioners. It shows you how to find the resources you need on the SEAL website, and has links to resources that have proved particularly useful and popular – like assessment tools, and resources for work on anger.
Healthy Schools Newsletter
The Healthy Schools June newsletter is now live.
Please feel free to share this link with your contacts
Words Matter - Powerful new film to drive change.
The Words Matter charity campaigning to highlight the power of language, and the lasting damage of verbal abuse have released a short new film. At its centre is a poem by Tally Gilbert, brought to life with moving honesty by 13-year-old Ethan, laying bare the often-unseen damage caused by adult language. The film brings the emotional weight of verbal abuse into sharp focus - calling on all adults to reflect on the way they speak to children.
The poem captures a painful truth many adults will recognise - the words spoken to us as children, whether kind or cruel, echo for years.
Young Carers
Cornwall Council would like to hear the views of Young Carers and the professionals who support them.
Please share the links:
Caring in Cornwall - Professionals: Your Views Matter | Let's Talk Cornwall
Caring in Cornwall: Your Views Matter | Let's Talk Cornwall (for Young Carers)
“Majority of parents believe they had a safer, easier and better childhood than their children”.
A headline from a news story released by the NSPCC:
Most UK parents and carers of children aged eighteen and under believe their own childhood was safer (63%), easier (54%) and full of better experiences (55%) than their own children’s.
We commissioned a YouGov survey2 to analyse children’s playing habits, which also found that 59% of participants want their children to play more in person.
A third of parents (33%) believe the biggest barrier to their child playing more in person is concerns over their safety. Other barriers identified include:
- The accessibility of going online (26%)
- The cost-of-living crisis, such as preventing families from being able to afford clubs (25%)
- Online games being more engaging (23%)
- Lack of friends to play with (23%).
Overall, findings showed that 38% of parents believe their child plays online every day or multiple times a day. This increases once children reach their teens with 53% of parents of 12 to 16-year-olds saying their children within that age group play online at least once a day.
In-person play also decreases as a child ages. While 40% of total participants agreed their children played in person once a day or more, this decreased to just 27% for those with 12 to 16-year-olds and 16% for those with 17 to 18-year-olds.
Mentally Healthy Schools - Pride Month toolkit 2025
Two toolkits - one for primary schools, one for secondary schools & FE settings - full of resources to celebrate and support those who identify as LGBTQIA+ during Pride Month and beyond.
News from Pooky Knightsmith
Supporting the Move to Year 7 – a guide for parents
Here’s a new resource designed to support parents and carers as they help their child navigate the sometimes bumpy transition from primary to secondary school.
Whether your child is full of excitement, feeling nervous, or somewhere in between, this guide shares ten calm, practical strategies to help the move feel a little less daunting—and a lot more doable.
Inside, you’ll find ideas like:
- Keeping routines steady to provide reassurance
- Having gentle check-in chats that encourage open conversation.
- Creating a low-key ‘survival kit’ for those first few days
- Naming the unknowns to help shrink the fear around them.
It’s written to be dipped into and used flexibly—no pressure, just support when and how it helps.
Colleagues in school, please feel free to share this with your families if it feels useful. I’ve included the Word version too in case you’d like to turn it into something beautiful or branded for your setting (please do share it with me if you do—I love seeing how things evolve!).
Wellbeing Book of the Week
The River by Tom Percival
An exquisite, thought-provoking book to help children understand the idea of ever-changing emotions. Rowan loves the river; it's just like he is. On some days, it's quiet and calm, on others it's light and playful, and then there are the days when it roars along, wild, and angry.
But when Rowan goes through a particularly difficult winter, the river freezes - just like Rowan. Can Rowan find a way to release his frozen feelings, and allow the river to flow freely once more?
I am constantly in awe of how Tom Percival can get to the essence of huge themes like anxiety (Ruby’s Worry) and loss (The Sea Saw) and emotions as here. The simplicity of the ever-changing river to explore our changing emotions is beautifully created here. This powerful story encourages children to embrace a range of emotions and understand how natural they are.
It is a great read with wonderful artwork and can provide a rich resource for work Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
Heraclitus
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 a coping with change booklet – great for transitions
Be Happy Resources
Resources to buy and subscriptions to access everything on site but always a free resource or two each week.
This week’s free download is: a Little Book of Mindfulness
Any other sites you are aware of and would recommend?
Digital Resilience Tools and Resources
As 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?
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.