For our second year of Student Voice funded by a Department of Education partnership grant our students have chosen to focus on Mental Health.
We invite you to complete this survey on your own mental health and wellbeing:
https://forms.gle/Si41cFwDZZqSf3Z87
Find out more about the work our students have done to improve mental health in our schools:
- Student Voice Mental Health Conference
- Peer Support: Mental Health Leaflets
- Teacher Training: Mental Health Podcasts
- Activity Days: Exploring Mental and Physical Health
Student Voice: Peer Support
Wellbeing Posters
A3 Wellbeing Posters in a range of languages have been produced by Dulwich College and the SSLP with support from The Stephen Spender Trust, The Chartered Institute of Linguistics and ISMLA. They can all now be downloaded on our Wellbeing Posters page. The English posters were first translated into Spanish, then a Spanish gender neutral version, and then French, German, Italian and Chinese.
Mental Health Leaflets (By students, For students)
Alleyn’s, TCSED & SSSO
Students from Alleyn’s School, the Charter School East Dulwich and St Saviour’s & St Olave’s worked together to develop a series of six leaflets that can be used by their peers in any school. Thanks to Mr Eaton from TCSED for supporting the students with this project.
If your school would like to add to this series please contact k.barretta@sslp.education
Student Voice: Teacher Training Podcasts
Mental Health Podcasts (By students, for teachers)
AGA, DC, STAC
Students from Ark Globe Academy, Dulwich College and St Thomas the Apostle School and Sixth Form College are currently working on a series of three podcasts for teachers. They have interviewed experts in The Adolescent Brain, Trauma and Stress & Anxiety. Thank you to Ms Whittington from DC who has facilitated the interviews and to Mr Flower from DC who has edited the recordings.
Here’s a sneak preview of the Trauma podcast:
Student Voice: Activity Days
Activity Days
DC, JAGS, KFS, SSSO, STAC
Students from Dulwich College, James Alleyn’s Girls’ School, Kingsdale Foundation School, St Saviour’s & St Olave’s School and St Thomas the Apostle School and Sixth Form College came to Dulwich College in May for a planning workshop. The aim of the day was to produce a template ‘Activity Day’ for SSLP secondary schools focussed on exploring the relationship between physical and mental health. The results are below.
Mental Health Activity Day
This template Activity Day is designed to encourage year 7&8 students to explore the relationship between mental and physical wellbeing. Please start the day by using the Assembly materials. Then spend the morning doing a fun physical activity that all the students can engage with; this could be a basketball competition, a Yoga & Pilates taster workshop or a village fete with welly wanging & sack races – the choice is yours. In the afternoon students should split into groups to do two workshops (the below are designed to be 40 – 90mins depending on your needs).
There’s a powerpoint and a lesson plan for each part of the day below.
Workshop
Competitive Sports
Workshop
Food & Nutrition
If your school would like to develop an additional workshop for an Activity Day please contact k.barretta@sslp.education who will help you use the development activities.
Student Voice: 1st Project Meeting (13-01-2022)
Activity Days
HBAED, JAGS, Elmgreen, WCS, Kingsdale
To deliver a framework for a day that demonstrates and explores the connection between physical and mental health. The day will begin with an assembly and activities to explore and recognise feelings and emotions. There will then be a fun physical activity for the morning. The day will conclude with discussions / workshops about the short and long term benefits of physical activity on mental health and how to offer support to others.
The next step will be to recruit more students from each school to get involved with development.
A Lead Teacher is still required for this project.
Peer Support
SBUA, TCSED, SSSO, Alleyn’s, St Michael’s
To produce a package of support material that is produced by students for students. The package will include leaflets about common mental conditions, a slide presentation for assemblies and worksheets so students can identify where they need support and how to get it.
The next step is to survey schools to identify the conditions/topics to be covered.
Mr Eaton has agreed to lead on this project.
Teacher Training
AGA, STAC, DC, City Heights
To create a package of resources for teachers that helps them to feel comfortable speaking to students and their parents about four key mental health issues.
The next step is to survey all schools to find out which four areas students most feel need to be improved.
Ms Whittington has agreed to lead on this project. Thank you to Ms Rodin who led today.
Student Voice: Mental Health Conference
SSLP Schools were invited to bring up to 5 students and one teacher to our Mental Health Conference on Thursday 25th November. The day ran from 9am – 3:30pm, and involved guest speakers and group workshops.
Thank you to Church House Westminster for hosting us, and to Ms Nathalie Whittington, Director of Wellbeing at Dulwich College for coordinating the day and the speakers.
Jo Ray
An integrative Arts Psychotherapist and is the Lead Counsellor at Dulwich College.
Mind, Brain and Relationships
Jo introduced us to our brains and our minds, giving us an introductory insight into the physiology of the brain and some of the known science. We learnt how the brain develops and regresses during adolescence and about the effects stress and trauma have on it.
Jo’s talk helped us to understand the two following talks and set us up for a productive afternoon of planning social action projects.
Dr Irene Sclare
A Consultant Clinical Psychologist and leader of the DISCOVER programme.
Managing Stress and Worry
Irene talked to us about the causes of stress in teenagers, and helped us to understand the fight, flight and freeze responses that the brain has. We considered how stress impacts on our feelings, thoughts and behaviours and ways to handle our worries and fear.
Irene spoke about the importance of a good night’s sleep, getting a good work / life balance and ways in which we can support each other or get support when we need it.
Gary Baron
A qualified Psychotherapist and Counsellor.
The Denial of Self/Soul Wounds and the impact on Young People’s mental health
Gary provided every student with a balloon to be inflated at the start of the morning session and then cared for. He then had us working in small school groups to identify what soul wounds are.
Gary talked to us about intergenerational trauma, adolescence, unprocessed feelings, neurodiversity and the impact of silence, difference and particularly racial abuse on mental health.
At the end of the session we learnt that the balloons represented our souls and we were left to reflect on whether we had kept them in our consciousness and cared for them.
In the afternoon students worked with the charity, Young Citizens on the creation of THREE social action projects which will make a positive change to the mental health of pupils across SSLP schools. The groups will continue working together over the spring term to deliver their projects.
The Elmgreen School, JAGS and Westminster City School will be designing a series of Mental Wellbeing Activity Days. Alleyn’s School, The Charter School East Dulwich, St Michael’s Catholic College and South Bank University Academy will be developing some Peer Mentoring and Fundraising ideas. Ark Globe Academy, City Heights E-Act Academy and Dulwich College will form some valuable Teacher Training.
Student Voice Council
Our first meeting was on Thursday 7th October. Students from Dulwich College, The Elmgreen School and Westminster City School attended and apologies were received from Ark Globe Academy, Harris Boys Academy East Dulwich, JAGS, St Saviour’s & St Olave’s and St Thomas Apostle School and Sixth Form College.
Items in blue have been added by students unable to attend the first meeting.
SSLP Ambassadors identified things that their schools already do really well in regards to Mental Health support.
- Building relationships with external mental health organisations
- Ensuring any staff member is approachable for any student
- Starting good conversations about mental health in PSHE lessons from Year 7
- Having anonymous access to school counsellors
- Providing a safe space for people to practice their faith, whatever that might be
- Providing good role models from different cultures, communities and experiences
- Running lessons on how to prepare for stressful situations like exams
- Educating students about mental health
- Identifying and caring about students who are experiencing poor mental health
Next the Ambassadors shared ideas for a Mental Health conference to be held in November
- Workshop for helping friends cope with poor mental health
- Discussion on how to deal with grief, loss and failure
- Professional guidance on clinical classification of poor mental health and specific conditions
- Exploring the link between physical and mental health
- Training on how to recognise and identify different conditions in ones self and in others
- Understanding how different communities, environments and relationships may affect mental health
- Tips on how to deal with expected pressures on mental wellbeing such as exams
Finally we shared some initial ideas about what a social action project might look like
- A campaign for KS3 / 4 about social media – myths, false news and advice etc
- A podcast series involving interviews with many schools
- Identifying barriers to accessing support and how to remove them
- Bake sales as this has a wide range of effects on people’s moods
- Getting active – 20%-30% of students have lower risk of depression due to physical activities
- Employ trained professional councillors in all schools