to Mental Health and Wellbeing...

Promoting Positive Attitudes

St Ambrose Barlow RC High School & Sixth Form CollegeA National Teaching School

A National School of Creativity

OUR MAIN PRIORITY

Whenever I speak with parents and guardians about what they want for their child they always say things like, ‘I want them to be happy’ or,‘I hope they feel at ease with themselves and can be who they want to be.’ They never express their hopes and dreams in terms of exam results, university degrees or careers.

This makes sense to most people; life should be about finding fulfilment not pursuing a shopping list of achievements or the highest salary. However, this hasn’t stopped a huge increase in mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in young people in recent years. The pressures of modern life for young people are immense; parents and schools often unwittingly add to these.

Mental illness in all its forms does not discriminate. Like many of you I have personal experience of the challenges it presents within my own family, amongst friends and in my professional life. I understand how bleak life can become for some people and how it can appear to happen from nowhere.

Many of our students talk about the pressure they feel to achieve, to fit a certain way of being or to meet the demands of others. For some this is manageable, if uncomfortable, for others it is destructive and damaging.

For these and other reasons I want to make clear to all students, parents, staff, governors and members of our school community that promoting the positive mental health of our young people is the number one priority for the school now and in the years ahead.

At St. Ambrose Barlow our purpose is the education and development of the whole person: ‘head, heart and hands’. It is not enough to ask ‘how intelligent is this young person?’

Rather we should be asking, ‘In what way are they intelligent?’ Everyone has gifts and talents and we must seek to draw these out and fulfil them, developing skills, knowledge and values in the process. This does not mean that everyone can succeed to the same level, but with careful support and by knowing our students, everyone can be the ‘best version’ of themselves.

Without real confidence, resilience and self-esteem students can easily lose a sense of purpose and, with that, can lose hope. It is no good if our young people achieve outstanding exam results if they then lack the strength of character and mental fortitude to embrace life in all its richness, complexity and ambiguity. They need to feel comfortable in their own skins, loved, nurtured, supported, challenged and respected. Real learning, learning that lasts a lifetime and changes lives, does not take place when our students are anxious, fearful or placed under pressure without the means to cope.

I am very keen to hear from you if you would like to discuss these matters and particularly if you are keen to get involved.

Ben DavisHeadteacher

to Mental Health and Wellbeing...

Promoting Positive Attitudes

I want to make clear to all members of our school community that promoting the positive mental health of our young people is the number one priority for the school now and in the years ahead.

“ “

1. Encouraging young people and staff to talk about mental health to challenge and overcome stigma and prejudice

2. Provide appropriate and effective mental health support to young people, staff and their families when it is needed and intervene where possible to prevent matters escalating

3. Ensure that all aspects of school promote positive relationships and wellbeing

This priority is central to our Catholic faith. It is because we are a Catholic school that we strive to create a nurturing ethos of love and support through which we can challenge, develop and grow the abilities of young people and celebrate their uniqueness.

Everything else we do is based on this aim. Success in learning, in exams, in extra-curricular activities all depend on young people knowing themselves, being comfortable with who they are and being confident and resilient. Faith offers hope, makes sense of doubt, encourages creativity and curiosity and allows for reflection and reconciliation.

Our CommitmentThere are three things that we, as a school, are going to work on to ensure that we make these aspirations a reality:

Our Faith

This is not always easy. All secondary schools have found in recent times that there has been an increase in the number of young people who are struggling with mental health issues including depression, eating disorders, self-harm, thoughts or suicide and anxiety. It can be very difficult to talk about this and, particularly for parents and carers, confronting these issues at home or, for teachers, at school, can be disturbing. The statistics are clear: 1 in 8 youngsters has self-harmed and more young people take their own lives than die in road accidents.

We are keen to encourage young people to take responsibility for developing confidence, resilience and ways of managing their mental health. That is why we will continue to place strong, nurturing relationships at the heart of our work. Our school development strategy contains four targets created by the students, one of which is centred on mental health and wellbeing.

The challenge

Empowering our young people

• Holding parent workshops • Publishing articles in our school magazine and newsletter about mental

health• Creating a set of procedures for supporting young people• Providing staff with advice on supporting young people who are self-

harming or having thoughts of suicide• Training staff • Taking a whole school pledge• Working with mental health charities• Changing practices in the school that cause anxiety or pressure• Establishing a scheme in school whereby pupils can become Young

Ambassadors for positive mental health• Providing information about mental health in various forms to pupils and

their families• Raising money for charities that provide support for mental health

If you are worried about the mental health and wellbeing of your child please contact their Pupil Progress Co-ordinator. As soon as you do we can begin to provide support. At home you can help your child by talking about mental health (don’t be afraid to mention self-harm or suicide) and by encouraging your child to express their feelings, especially when they are confused, under pressure or upset. You can access more advice by making contact with us at St. Ambrose Barlow or by contacting the organisations on the back of this leaflet.

What parents and carers can do...

What have we done?As a school we aim to be positive, proactive and courageous in addressing these issues. We want our young people and their families to feel that even very difficult feelings and emotions can be talked about openly and pupils can be helped to deal effectively with them.

We also know that we will not always get everything right, but at St. Ambrose Barlow we are beginning to address this very significant challenge. It is something that we would like to do in collaboration with students, their families and the wider community.

Our work so far...• Specific support for individual young people who are in difficulty or crisis• Employing a school therapeutic counsellor• Challenging the stigma of mental illness by encouraging staff and pupils

to talk about it• Training a number of staff in various methods of supporting young people• Creating a Safe Plan for any young person who is going through difficulties• Sharing information with staff to ensure that learning and classroom

relationships are properly managed• Focussing on mental health awareness raising in PSHE super days, Form

Time and in Assembly Worked with Educational Psychologists and key charities and agencies and others to address issues of mental health

• Mindfulness workshops• Participation in a local Clinical Commissioning Group on mental health• Salford Foundation’s Girls Allowed focusing on self-image, mental well-

being and pupil lead topics.

We are also working to ensure that all of our systems and ways of doing things (such as behaviour management, the design of the curriculum, learning and teaching, dealing with bullying and celebrating success) actively address issues of mental and emotional wellbeing, confidence,resilience and character.

We are developing a detailed plan for how we intend to continue to improve our approach to mental health and wellbeing. This includes:

We do we plan to do next?

THIS ISAMBROSE...WE DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY HERE

Samaritans

www.samaritans.org/branches/manchester-and-salford-samaritans

Telephone 0161 236 8000Email Samaritans:jo@samaritans.org

Visit our branch: Samaritans Manchester72-74 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5NH

Young Minds

www.youngminds.org.uk and www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents

Parent Helpline: 0800 802 5544

Breathing Space

www.breathingspacescotland.co.uk

Telephone 0800 83 85 87

Mind

www.mind.org.uk/information-support/helplines

42nd Street

www.42ndstreet.org.uk

Turn to me

www.turn2me.org/?gclid=CP6ho_--yckCFUZAGwodKo8Baw

Relate

www.relate.org.uk/relationship-help/help-family-life-and-parenting/family-

common-problems/coping-disruptive-teenagers

Mental Health in Manchester

www.mhim.org.uk/youngpeople/foryoungpeople/getting_help.html