MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE

May 2022

National Mental Health Awareness Week: 9 - 15 May

This year our focus at IGS has been encouraging staff and students to talk about mental health as a way of raising awareness and breaking down stigma.

A student led launch assembly video started the week and highlighted the message that mental health is not always visible, is sometimes difficult to talk about and that we cannot always tell what other people are going through.  The Year 12 Mental Health Champions devised a series of activities and resources to be used each morning during for tutor time and PBT. Teachers were asked to change their desktop background to an image of their go to healthy self-care strategy so these could be seen displayed on screens in classrooms. Students were then encouraged to ask staff about how and why they helped. 

A highlight of the week was an additional video, shown to students in tutor time, of staff and students talking of their mental health experiences and the coping strategies they implemented. The message this delivered was incredibly powerful with people talking openly about their OCD, panic attacks, low moods as well as bipolar and anxiety disorders. Coping strategies and recovery plans were shared as a way of showing that recovery is possible in many ways. Feedback has been incredibly positive with people reporting how inspirational it has been seeing people talk so bravely about their own journey.

This school is dedicated to give staff and students more opportunity to talk about their mental health and is currently training one in four staff to be Mental Health First Aiders by the end of this year. Such training has been made possible through funding from both the PTA and IGS Students. Over £1850 was raised from a non-uniform day on Friday 29th April  which shows how passionate we are as a community on continuing to improve this important provision.

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