At Haybridge, we use the Ethics curriculum, tutor time, morning meetings and assemblies to talk to students about their mental health, how to deal with worries and feelings they have, and how to report these worries. We have an experienced pastoral team who support students with their wellbeing. Pastoral care begins before students arrive in Year 7 when we liaise closely with their primary schools. 

All students are placed into a tutor group in Year 7. The tutors and the Heads of Year are always happy to help students and they can feel reassured if they are worried about something they can report it to their Tutor or Head of Year. All staff in school are trained to identify behaviours that may indicate that students are struggling with their mental health, and we also have a number of staff who are trained as Mental Health First Aiders; these staff wear green lanyards so that students know who they are. Our Safeguarding Team are also involved in students’ wellbeing and are specifically trained to deal with safeguarding issues so that students are safe in school. 

In addition to the staff who work in school, we have counsellors from The Wellbeing Crew who come into school twice a week for face-to-face appointments. It is important that we identify issues early on and that we ensure that support is put in place, but in order to do this we need students to talk to us and tell us how they are feeling. As well as the Tutors, Heads of Year and teaching staff, students can report concerns on the SHARP system – this can be done anonymously if the report is about someone else, or students can give their name. We appreciate that students can find it difficult to make initial contact with the pastoral team and so using the SHARP system gives students the opportunity to reach out. The SHARP system can be accessed here. 

You can find more information about Haybridge’s mental health strategy here.