A SCHOOL in Erskine has received two awards for its efforts to support children’s emotional wellbeing.

Barsail Primary has been given the SEL Worldwide Award in recognition of the school’s commitment to the PATHS programme.

Backed by children’s charity Barnardo’s, PATHS stands for ‘promoting alternative thinking strategies’ and helps to improve the mental health of primary pupils by developing self-control, emotional awareness and problem-solving skills.

The school has also received Renfrewshire Nurturing Relationships Approach (RNRA) Gold status, which is the highest level of accreditation for local organisations working to become a nurturing community.

The Gazette:

Emma Mavers, headteacher at Barsail Primary, told The Gazette: “Both awards are linked as they are all about our relationships policy within the school.

“Much of our school is built around our vision and values of belonging and being part of the Barsail family.

“This kind of ethos permeates our curriculum and every class in the school.”

Staff at Barsail Primary have been working hard to promote social and emotional literacy in their classes, with teachers Jennifer Gibney, Lynda Kellett and Gill Gooding each playing an important role in helping the school attain the awards.

To celebrate their achievements, Barsail Primary held a virtual celebration over Microsoft Teams, due to Covid mitigations preventing large gatherings taking place.

The Gazette:

The event included an interactive quiz and a fun activity where children and their families wrote compliments on heart-shaped pieces of paper, which will all be joined together to form a big love heart at the school.

A video put together by pupils was also shown, in which Barnardo’s UK PATHS programme co-ordinator Kristy Fotheringham was interviewed by the children.

Kristy said: “The management team and teachers have shown such commitment to prioritising children’s emotional and social learning within their classrooms every day and they are really seeing the results from doing this.

“Barsail Primary have fully embraced the programme, which is all about early intervention and prevention, supporting children and young people at the earliest point to stop more serious problems arising.”