Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week was marked at Brooke Weston Academy with special assemblies for all students, who were introduced to Grounding Techniques, exercises that can be applied to help students refocus on the present moment and distract them from anxious feelings. Students received coping technique prompt cards for their lanyards, with small images to represent the six techniques, all of which can be done discreetly at their desk in the classroom.

Techniques covered included:

• Square Breathing Meditation
• 5 Senses - 5-4-3-2-1 Method
• Room Search
• Alphabet Game
• Tense and Relax
• Finger Pressing

Students also had the opportunity to fill in mental health prompt slips which were displayed on a special board outside the restaurant.

Our on-site counsellor, Mrs Pope-May, facilitated a session around resilience and coping with difficult situations.

Northamptonshire NHS MHST (Mental Health Support Team), located at BWA came into school to run an information stall and to work with a small group of students around anxious feelings.

YouthWorks also visited to talk to students about the ways they can boost their mental health, from joining youth groups to build communities, to self-referring for their counselling services.

Sammy Hallybone, Lead of Culture, Ethos & Wellbeing - Senior Mental Health Lead, said 'We have been working hard to help students understand their mental health, communicate their need for help, and process emotions. Our efforts have meant a massive improvement from student voice, going from 66% to 82% of students feeling encouraged to look after their emotional and mental health. As educators we need to do what we can to bridge the gap in support to help our young people. The aim of the coping techniques is to allow students to feel calmer, access lessons, and give them time to make considered action when feeling big emotions.

'It was wonderful to see so many responses from our students around their thoughts about mental health. They shared the things that calmed them down when they felt stressed and we saw lots of common themes: music, talking with friends, physical activity, food, and crying it out. Hearing the conversations as students went past the board, you could hear that they related to what people had written, and it meant they felt less alone.

'We are so grateful for the local support we were able to have visit us and the staff efforts to make CMHW such a success this year. Thank you to everyone involved!’