Children’s Mental Health week this week has given important time to work with our young people to ensure they know how the importance of their voice. ‘My voice matters’ – the theme for this year – allowed students across the school to think about how their family and the school support them to have a voice and what to do when they need to talk.

Our students in the ARP worked on the Hopes and Fears Tree event for Children’s Mental Health Week. The students made a tree, leaves and worms. On the leaves they wrote happy and positive things in their lives, and on the worms things that worried them or made them sad. The leaves are put on the tree to blossom and flourish, the worms are dropped on the ground to decay and disappear.

Enabling all our young people to talk about their wellbeing and mental health, both at school and at home, is so important. If you need any advice or additional resources to help those conversations at home, go to https://www.place2be.org.uk/our-services/ parents-and-carers

This week we also had the opportunity to host 25 school leaders from across Africa (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa) as part of a British Council visit led by Evelyn Forde MBE – it really was an enriching experience and so interesting to explore similarities and differences across our school systems. My thanks to everyone who supported on the day.

A message from Evelyn Fords, MBE:

“A massive thank you from me, our SSA delegates and the British Council. They were so so impressed with your school, the organisation… the students and the staff who presented were just superb. I know first-hand how much work goes into planning for such a large group and we couldn’t have asked for a better school experience for this group. Mrs Cross, your staff and students did you proud and I know how proud of your school you are, and rightly so….Please pass my sincere thanks to everyone who made the day so fantastic, we really did appreciate it.”

We are already just one week away from the half-term holiday! We finish on Friday 16th February at 3pm for all students.

Wishing you a good weekend.

Mrs Cross