As it is Children’s Mental Health Week, we’d like to highlight some of the many ways in which our students can access support in school and explain what type of support is available to them.

Support might come from talking to your Form Teacher, Head of Year or Pastoral Support Worker. Students can also talk to Mrs Gage who is our school Mental Health, Wellbeing and Safeguarding Lead. Mrs Gage can offer support directly or suggest a separate service that may be of help.

Some of these services are offered externally but there is a lot of support that students can access here at Longdendale during school hours.

On Mondays, Julia is based at Longdendale. Julia can offer 1-1 counselling by appointment for students who may be experiencing low-medium level mental health concerns. She is part of the NHS Mental Health Support Teams in Schools (MHST) who also offer coffee mornings and workshops for young people experiencing issues such as low mood and anxiety.

Ginny is a school health mentor who visits us each Wednesday. Ginny can help students with general health concerns and can also help students who might be having difficulties with friendships, at home, with how they are feeling about school or how engaged they are with their school work. She can offer interventions in anger management, self esteem and anxiety.

Hayden from the primary care network, Healthy Hyde, visits school every Thursday to help improve students social, emotional and physical well-being. Hayden works with a maximum of 6 students at a time, building positive relationships and running fun team games which offer students a comfortable, safe environment in which to open up and discuss their mental health and well-being. Hayden can advise on strategies to help students deal with challenges they may face.

This week we have also had Tameside, Oldham & Glossop Mind in school to speak with students about what support they can offer young people locally and how this can be accessed.

Our Student Council is made up of ten Year 10 students plus our Head Boy and Head Girl. They meet on a Friday to discuss topics important to them and their peers, including issues affecting their well-being. Students in all year groups can speak to their form rep or a member of the student council if there is something they would like to nominate for discussion. It is vital that the feelings and thoughts of our students are listened to, not just during Children’s Mental Health week where the theme is ‘My Voice Matters’ but all year round.