Well-being and Mental Health
Welcome to the Bishop Stopford’s School Well-being and Mental Health homepage. Here you will find information and support for various challenges both students and parents may face. We hope you will find this information useful. Please use the tabs to the right of this page to help navigate through the resources available.
At Bishop Stopford’s School, we aim to ensuring that all students are aware of the 5 ways to wellbeing, feel supported and are aware of any risks and keep themselves safe.
We recognise that it is important that our students know how to care for themselves both mentally and physically, whilst they also develop personal traits and virtues that will motivate and guide our students to flourish in society with confidence and resilience.
We will enlighten students so that they behave with integrity and cooperate consistently well with others. We want our students to develop so that they possess confidence, resilience and knowledge so that they can keep themselves mentally and physically healthy.
We build our school ethos of Aim high, working hard and be kind, into day-to-day life at school to help students to have good understanding of their mental health, well-being, and ways to support them.
Want to know more about the 5 ways to wellbeing?
Here you will find information about the 5 ways to wellbeing.
Want to know more about our Mental Health Champions?
Here you will find more information about our Mental Health Champions.
Who can you talk to during the School day?
If you have a worry or an issue you can speak to any member of staff you feel comfortable speaking to. Please speak to your Form tutor and Head of Year. They are responsible for;
- your mental health and wellbeing
- your safeguarding
- monitoring behaviour and attendance
- celebrating your success and encouraging you to achieve even more
- working together with you and your family to overcome any obstacles
- monitoring your progress in lessons and supporting you to reach your potential
- supporting you with any welfare issues and being someone you can talk to
Who can I speak to outside the School?
At times you might find the need to speak to someone during the evening, at weekend or during the holidays. If you feel that you may need help from someone outside of school, please see below for some useful links to information from other sources.
- Childline: www.childline.org.uk or call 0800 11 1
- Kidscape: www.kidscape.org.uk or call 020 7730 3300
- Kooth: www.kooth.com
- Mind: www.mind.org.uk
- NHS: www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/childrens-mental-health/
- Samaritans: www.www.samaritans.org or call 116 123 for free
- Young Minds: www.youngminds.org.uk
- Place2Be – improving mental health: www.place2be.org.uk
- Living Life to the Full, lots of support including CBT: https://llttf.com/
- Talk To Frank – https://www.talktofrank.com/
- Kaleidoscope Group: www.kaleidoscopeplus.org.uk
Welfare
School is demanding physically. Please make sure that your child gets sufficient sleep to manage the demands of a school day. Research has shown that children learn better if they have had breakfast.
Physical exercise is important and all students in our School are timetabled for P.E. Students should have their correct kit (clearly labelled with the student’s name and House) for these lessons. They will only be excused for special reasons which must be explained to the P.E. department in writing prior to the start of the lesson. Students should take advantage of breaks and lunchtimes to be active and let off steam. Many students will also take part in ‘Wake Up; Shake Up’ morning activities. They should also use the lavatories at these times; they will not be allowed out of lessons except in case of dire emergency.
Health
Any student who feels unwell or has an accident in the course of the day should report to the Main Office. The child may be asked to rest for a while in the medical room and then return to lessons, or his or her parent/s may be contacted by a Welfare Officer if she decides that the child is too unwell to return to classes. The decision about whether a child needs to go home will be taken by the first-aider and not by the child; students must not use mobile phones, which are banned in school, to circumvent this process.
Every effort is made to take appropriate action in the case of a medical emergency; in the rare event of hospital treatment being needed we will attempt to contact the parent/s or carer/s immediately so that he or she can either collect their child from school or meet their child at the hospital. Any student who needs to take medication during the school day should give this in to a Welfare Officer with a covering letter so that this can be supervised by a responsible adult.(The inhalers used by Students with asthma may be kept by the student but a Welfare Officer must be informed that the child is asthmatic and carries an inhaler. The inhaler should be labelled clearly with the child’s name and form.)
If you have any concerns about your child’s health, please notify a Welfare Officer and make sure that you include these details in the medical form that you are asked to complete for our records. There is a regular programme of screenings and vaccinations offered by the schools’ medical service and details of this will be given via your child.
Mental Health Champions
Some of our Year 8 and 7 students have been trained up to be Mental Health Champions. The first thing they were taught was to look after their own mental health first. These students are learning about ways to promote mental health and support others. This week they will be delivering the assembly either narrated or live, which they have planned themselves.