A ‘Quiet Room’ is available for students at lunchtimes staffed by the Pastoral team, there is a student leaflet section for students to collect useful literature relating to wellbeing and mental health. In addition to this, there are notice boards outside the dining room and the Pastoral Heads Office listing web-sites and telephone numbers of services which offer advice and support.
Students also receive assemblies and Form time sessions around wellbeing and mental health. At present we are training a cohort of student to become “Peer Mentors”. Girls are also invited to wellbeing support groups such as our ‘Bounce’ project to build resilience.
Biannually, we run a wellbeing day for our students and we have events such as ‘Feeling good week’ and ‘Time to Change’ activities.
Staff also receive training in supporting students with mental health. Staff have attended ‘My Teen Brain’ training, Stonewall training to support LGBT+, the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust and CAMHS Eating Disorder Team have led whole staff training and staff inset has focused on Growth Mindset, test efficacy and the Neuroscience of learning.
The Prep department has a counsellor who works with them. In addition, a ‘drop in’ session is run every Tuesday lunchtime for the girls. In the allocated PSHE time on a Wednesday, girls have the opportunity to join the TIME group, which is a small group established just to give the girls TIME to collect their thoughts. Staff can recommend girls to come and girls can ask to join. The group is regularly rotated.
There are many assemblies dedicated to wellbeing. Mr Baker also visits the Prep. girls on a regular basis and delivers inspiring pastoral assemblies. The girls have buddies in the Prep and love spending time with them. These sessions happen regularly. On the playground, the girls know to use the friendship bench if they are feeling lonely.
Regular wellbeing strategies such as Growth Mindset and Metacognitive strategies for managing test anxiety are shared with the pupils.
For more information and support, please see the full list of websites and material detailed below:
Useful web links and sources of online support
Just Talk – www.justtalkherts.org
Healthy Young Minds – www.healthyyoungmindsinherts.org.uk/
Anna Freud Centre - www.annafreud.org/
Young Minds - https://youngminds.org.uk/
Peer Mediation - www.peermediationnetwork.org.uk/
Academic Resilience - https://youngminds.org.uk/what-we-do/our-projects/academic-resilience/
Resilience in the classroom resources -www.leicestershirehealthyschools.org.uk/en/content/cms/resources/emotional-health/the-resilient-classr/
Empathy resources - https://startempathy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/StartEmpathy_Toolkit.pdf
Childline - https://www.childline.org.uk/
Aged 16-25 and need help dealing with a breakup? Whether you're looking for support with your own relationship or a family relationship - Relate can help - www.relate.org.uk/relationship-help/help-young-adults
Mind Charity - www.mindcharity.co.uk/online-self-help-programmes-websites-resources/
LGBT+ support for young people - https://www.stonewall.org.uk/help-and-advice
Local Youth projects in our area - https://www.ychertfordshire.org/
Letchworth Young People’s Centre, Letchworth Town Hall - http://www.ychertfordshire.org/advice-and-support/yc-hertfordshire-access-points/letchworth/
Tile House Counselling - http://www.tilehouse.org/
Samaritans – www.samaritans.org/
MindEd is a free educational resource on children and young people's mental health for all adults- www.minded.org.uk/