Cadoxton Primary School

Centred on supporting all learners and mindful of well-being

Information about the school

Cadoxton Primary School is based in Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan. There are 500 pupils on roll, aged from 3 to 11, including 88 part-time nursery pupils. There are 14 single-year classes and four nursery classes. Around 36% of pupils are eligible for free school meals and 31% of pupils are identified as having additional learning needs.

Approach taken

Well-being has been at the heart of our school development plan for the last five years. Our professional learning offer must be centred on learners and give consideration to their well-being as we know that if their well-being isn’t supported and well-regulated then they can struggle to engage in all aspects of school life.

Children and their well-being is core to our purpose as a school and is our main priority. Our staff know that without positive well-being our children aren’t ready to engage in learning and our staff won’t be at their best for the learners.

Our professional learning offer has strategically focused on our whole school approach to well-being but there are many facets to this. We have considered learners:

• Psychological well-being – learners’ life satisfaction, sense of purpose, self-awareness and absence of emotional problems.
• Physical well-being – learners adopting a healthy lifestyle, and learners’ overall health.
• Social well-being – learners’ relationships with family, peers and teachers, and learners’
• feelings about their social life
• Cognitive well-being – learners’ proficiency in applying what they know to solve problems.

Post pandemic we know that an emotionally and mentally healthy school is one that adopts a whole-school approach to well-being; this helps children flourish, learn and succeed by providing opportunities for both the children and the adults around them to develop the strengths and coping skills that underpin resilience.

Our approach is now embedded in a school’s culture and ethos and has a significant impact on learners’ health and well-being as it influences their sense of belonging and value. Our children and staff expect school to be a safe and secure place, where they are valued equally and respected and we take a holistic approach to supporting good well-being, which is seen as everybody’s business.

This year we have focused our time and efforts on staff well-being and also parental well-being. Looking at ourselves as more than a place where children are educated academically but focusing time and resources on developing / supporting our families so they can flourish. This has included a psychologist working with our families to help build positive and resilient families.

We’ve also focused time on developing our physical activities and developing our staffs understanding of physical literacy and how important it is for staff and pupils physical and mental well-being to be physically active.

The impact of this work includes:

• 90% of staff reported an increase in feeling line managers valued their well-being.
• 72% of staff feel more capable in managing their own well-being effectively most of the time.
• 84% of staff have developed a range of strategies to support their own well-being – an increase of 30%.
• Nearly all staff reported feeling valued and part of the school community (Autumn 2021).
• All staff reported an increase in children who are ready for learning and engage positively with learning experiences.
• Nearly all Learning Support Assistants have reported feeling more confident in being able to support learners’ well-being.