Empowering joyful, vibrant and self-assured children through a comprehensive wellbeing strategy.
When our pupils move on to Senior School, they do so with deep and lasting friendships, an appreciation of stillness and the confidence to meet challenges.
Our award-winning holistic wellbeing provision actively offers opportunities for every pupil to succeed. By celebrating and sharing pupils’ joy and delight when they do succeed; we provide pupils with a wonderful sense of assurance and the ability to care for themselves and others.
We integrate meditation practices into the curriculum, promoting emotional regulation and periods of calm and quiet.
Strong relationships between pupils, teachers and parents are vital to fostering a supportive environment.
We prioritise pupil wellbeing by offering proactive care that nurtures emotional health and provides a supportive learning environment,
Pupils at St James are familiar with a daily meditative practice – ‘The Pause’, a short period of quiet reflection and stillness taking place at the beginning and end of each lesson, at assemblies and lunchtime.
This allows all pupils to join the present moment, refocus and digest the fruits of their learning. We encourage pupils and staff to appreciate the importance of the present moment, to be inwardly free and deeply at ease with ourselves amidst the fast pace of everyday life.
Our teachers are trained to provide individual support to pupils who may be struggling emotionally or academically.
Staff are strongly supported in their pastoral role and time is specifically dedicated in staff meetings for pastoral matters.
The Head meets with the Class Teachers to discuss every pupil’s progress and is readily available for consultation by staff and parents. Pupils also have individual time with their Class Teacher or the Head to speak about anything that is concerning them.
We encourage peer support networks and mentoring programmes, empowering pupils to help each other.
We foster open communication between pupils, teachers, and parents, creating a safe and supportive environment for everyone.
Community
Parents and carers can attend school events like assemblies, workshops, parent choir and art sessions. There are termly opportunities for parents and teachers to discuss their child’s progress and wellbeing, and workshops focused on supporting children’s wellbeing are organised frequently to provide parents with valuable information and resources.
Our unique Empathy Lab helps pupils develop vital skills in understanding and sharing the feelings and perspectives of others. Through targeted exercises and discussions, pupils learn to cultivate greater empathy and compassion.
We dedicate time to promoting awareness and appreciation of mental health and wellbeing. Pupils immerse themselves in a variety of engaging activities and interactive workshops that nurture their overall sense of emotional balance and resilience.
View what our Feel Good Friday on “Calmness” looked like here.
Woven throughout our holistic curriculum is a robust PSHEE programme and our school-wide CORE virtues. These elements work in harmony to cultivate the essential life skills and character traits that enable our pupils to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Read more on what CORE means here.
We empower select pupils to serve as the school’s Wellbeing Ambassadors, tasking them with leading a range of activities and initiatives designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of the school community.
“As a mother who has raised her child with sporadic family support from abroad and without a present father for the child, I cannot thank you enough for the unfailingly thoughtful, gentle, meaningful support you and your staff have provided throughout my daughter’s time at St James. She would not be as grounded within herself and her self-worth as she is today if it were not for you.” – St James Parent
The Pause
At St James, we feel it is important to introduce our pupils to stillness and allow them to discover how to be inwardly free and deeply at ease within themselves. A short period of 5-10 minutes at the beginning and middle of every day is allocated to quietude in which pupils may meditate, contemplate or simply be still – according to their own spiritual inclinations.