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Junior School Wellbeing

Happiness and Wellbeing

The happiness and general welfare of our girls is of prime importance and all members of staff are involved in their pastoral care. We encourage a safe and supportive learning environment in which everyone feels safe, comfortable and secure.

Our structured programme of Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education (PSHE) aims to build self-esteem and interpersonal relationships. It also raises awareness about important health-related issues and focuses on mindfulness. The girls have regular ‘circle time’ sessions and Form Times, forums in which they can discuss issues of common interest and help one another. This helps to enhance social skills, develop self-esteem and to initiate collective responsibility. There are regular Mindfulness sessions and we mark Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week every year. The girls also benefit from having both a Welfare Assistant and a Counsellor on site, who help support the physical, mental health and emotional well-being of the pupils.

The girls have a real sense of ownership of the school, with a strong pupil voice right from when they join in Reception. Roles of responsibility include School Council, Form Captains, Sustainability Team, Head Girls and Channing Character Champions, all of which provide the girls with opportunities to make positive changes to our community.

The girls also learn about citizenship, making a positive contribution to their community, about the institutions of British life and culture.

Communication

We aim to communicate frequently and effectively, as we believe the partnership between school and home is paramount. This is achieved through parents and staff communicating: via reading records/, talking at pick up, by email or on the telephone. All staff are available to discuss any concerns or just to touch base with parents whenever mutually convenient.

All girls adhere to The Channing Promise

Pupils developed The Channing Promise to articulate the School’s core values and Code of Conduct to which every member of the School community commits.

At Channing School, we:

Treat everyone with respect and kindness.
Think of others and be aware of their feelings.
Create a positive and supportive environment where we have the freedom to act, think and be heard.
Make the most of the opportunities we are given.
Treat all people fairly.

Moving up to the Senior School

Channing Senior School is the natural progression for most girls in Year 6. The girls in the Junior School do not have to sit the 11+ entrance examination. This allows them to enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum, learning free from the pressure of being prepared for the 11+ tests.

In fact, we do not teach to any tests. It is not part of our ethos and we know that this benefits our pupils academically, socially and emotionally as they move up through the Junior School, Senior School and all the way to Sixth Form.

But don’t just take our word for it.

Our annual statistics prove this method to be a positive one. In the 2023 summer public examinations, of the pupils who sat A levels at Channing School, 5 had been in our Junior School, with a success rate of 100% A* – B with 4A*s, 8As and 4Bs. This compares most favourably with 83.1% A*-B achieved by the overall cohort. In short, Channing Junior School pupils outperformed their non-Channing Junior School contemporaries. And this happens every year!

Although the Junior and Senior Schools occupy separate sites on either side of Highgate Hill, we are joined by so much that it always feels like one community. The Junior School pupils visit the Senior School for Taster Daysand use the state of the art performing arts facilities, the Arundel Centre. The Senior School students often visit the Junior School to use the brand new Multi Use Games Area.

There is always an extra buzz in assemblies when the Junior School girls join the Senior School students. Channing Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Year 5’s rendition of ‘Five Gold Rings’ during our singing of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas!’. Whole-school assemblies also celebrate the Junior School girls’ academic, sporting and artistic achievements – we all sing, clap and, most importantly, skip out of the hall at the end of each term, led out by the Junior School pupils and Head of the Junior School!

Tooled Up

We aim to provide holistic support to everyone in our school community, across all areas of family life, which is why we subscribe to a digital platform called Tooled Up Education. This gives our families and our staff access to an invaluable digital library of evidence-based resources on all aspects of parenting, education and family life. Founder, Dr Kathy Weston, has collated the best and most up-to-date research from around the world and distilled it into usable, easy to understand resources which can be instantly applied to daily life.

Tooled Up’s mission is to give every parent and teacher the tools they need to develop children into young adults who are:

Self-confident, self-sufficient and full of self-worth
Curious about the world and passionate about learning
Digitally skilled and digitally resilient