Southborough High School once again hosts Mental Health Conference for Kingston Primary Schools

Last week we were thrilled to welcome back Mental Health Ambassadors from primary schools in and around the Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames. It’s an event we feel extremely passionate about hosting and we were bowled over by how enthusiastic and articulate the primary school visitors were about Mental Health.

The background facts are sobering; 1 in 3 people will be affected by mental health issues at some point in their lives and it can manifest itself through a wide variety of symptoms and conditions, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, self-harm, addiction and personality disorders.

At Southborough, we believe that it’s more important than ever for students to be made aware of mental illness, to understand the importance of why it can happen to anyone at any time, know what the most common signs are of it first developing and what can be done to contain and even prevent its’ onset. We also believe that it’s important to remove the stigma that often comes with mental health issues. That’s why the subject of Mental Health is embedded into our Personal Development Programme across all year groups and why it’s more accessible than ever before for our students to understand and talk about any concerns that they may have regarding their mental health.

The fact is, society is more aware than ever before that mental health issues are being seen in younger and younger children – and the earlier students have the opportunity to discuss and learn about the issue, the more prepared and resilient they will become in the future. We were therefore thrilled to once again host this special Mental Health Conference specifically targeted at a younger audience.

The conference was produced and delivered by the Kingston School Health Team and School Health Practitioners ran the day with the help and support of our very own Year 11 Mental Health student ambassadors.

The key purpose of the conference was for the year 6 students to create an action plan on how they can raise awareness in their school around mental health. School Health Practitioner Sara commented:

“The students came up with some excellent ideas that they will work on including mental health posters, wellbeing rooms, cake sales, daily meditation, awareness assemblies and kindness reward charts. I’m confident that these comprehensive action lists will help them ‘spread the word’ and support their peers back in their own schools.”

We feel particularly proud to have hosted such a valuable conference and would like to thank Southborough’s Mental Health Lead Practitioner Mr Punter and the Kingston School Health Team for organising and running the event. Our Year 11 student Ambassadors were absolutely amazing throughout the morning and we would therefore like to thank them for being such wonderful role models. . Lastly we would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to all the staff and Year 6 pupils from the local primary schools who took time out to come, visit and participate so well.