St Stephen’s Church of England is now the first primary school in Bury to receive the ‘Emotionally Friendly Settings’ bronze award.
It comes after local services, including Pennine Care NHS’s Bury mental health support team, Early Break and Bury community psychology services supported the school to implement the Emotionally Friendly Settings (EFS) programme.
EFS is a flexible, whole-setting approach aimed at improving the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people by supporting individual students’ emotional needs.
Tracy Hamilton-Hall, whole education approach co-ordinator said: “This development marks a significant milestone for Bury, and we are delighted to celebrate it. An emotionally friendly setting is one that can identify and respond to a wide range of emotional needs, helping children, young people and staff to flourish and succeed.”
The school was presented with their certificate at the Emotionally Friendly Annual Conference at Salford Community Stadium on Wednesday 21 May 2025.
Sally Denney, headteacher at St Stephen’s said: “We’re all absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the bronze accreditation. Our school has always had emotional health, wellbeing, and flourishing at the very heart of everything we do.
“Working closely with local mental health services and providers, we feel confident that we can go on to achieve both silver and gold accreditation in years to come.”
Tracy added: “We extend our warmest congratulations to St Stephen’s for having their excellent emotional health and wellbeing practices for children and young people formally recognised through this award.”
Early Break has been a driving force in developing emotional health and wellbeing support for young people in Bury for the last 17 years. This joint project with Bury mental health support team, part of Pennine Care NHS, is just one aspect of their wider work.
