Helping students achieve mental fitness

Over the past decade, Wilson’s School has taken great strides in its approach to student mental health. Nominated London State Secondary School of the Decade by The Times, Wilson’s is a selective grammar school with high standards, and its students naturally want to do their best to achieve. 
But to do well in the exam hall, young people need to take care of their mental health and wellbeing.

To help the students thrive in its academic environment, Wilson’s School has a dedicated network of form tutors, pupil support managers and a forward-thinking leadership team. And now there’s a new Senior Mental Health Lead – Classics teacher, Samantha Banner – to take the school into the next phase of its journey. 

New challenges

“We’ve come a long way in terms of promoting positive mental health at the school,” explains Samantha. “We did a good job in reducing the stigma and getting people talking, and now students are open to approaching us with their difficulties which a real positive. 

“But that has meant there’s an increased demand for provision. And with only one counsellor, one nurse and long waiting lists for CAMHS appointments, it can be difficult to meet that demand. 

“We’re also still dealing with Covid, the impact of lockdown and the pressures of returning to a face-to-face working environment,” adds Samantha. “This was the first year of going back to normal exams and all the uncertainty has raised everyone’s stress levels.”

New solutions

It was time to review the school’s mental health strategy as Samantha explains. “We needed to look at new ways to support the whole school community, so when we heard about the government grant for mental health lead training, I was very keen to sign up.

“The advanced senior mental health lead course from Carnegie resonated most with what we needed. The course structure fitted in well with my full-time work and there was a good mix of content from articles and videos to more academically challenging reading.

“With the help of the training I created a three-year vision for the school which we have just started to implement. The Carnegie training gave me the authority to go to the SLT with my plans and gain their trust in my ideas.”

Small changes

Although it’s still early days for the new mental health strategy, Samantha has found the training is helping her engage staff in the plans. “The course opened my eyes to the theory of change which is incredibly useful for training a whole staff body. 

“One thing I learnt is how to lead meetings and get people talking around the school. That is making people more receptive to changes, such as taking a fresh look at how we talk about Mental Health in the PSHE curriculum or how we introduce more wellbeing topics into form times. 

“The course taught me the best way to get people on board is to show them how important the school’s mental health strategy is but without launching lots of big changes straight away. 

“It’s about breaking everything down into small steps which make a big difference.”

Positive thinking

A key part of the strategy at Wilson’s School is to get students more proactive in looking after their own mental health. 

“The danger is if we make a big song and dance about mental health, it can switch students off,” says Samantha. “So we looked at our pastoral curriculum and focused on the positives. We shall be encouraging students to think about their character strengths, what is good about them as a person and how they can develop that more.

“It gets students thinking positively without all the wellbeing hype. I call it mental health by stealth.”

Mental fitness

Mental fitness is a theme everyone buys into, as Samantha explains. “We really need parents to get involved in supporting mental health initiatives. But rather than inviting them to an evening to discuss mental health, which they might not feel is relevant for them or their child, we invite them to talk about what their children can do to feel positive and well prepared to achieve their best.

“Parents are responding very well to this approach.

“As a society we have transformed the way we talk and think about mental health,” says Samantha. “I feel the school is now much better prepared to help students manage everyday pressures and use their strengths in a positive way. 

“Just as we stay physically healthy by exercising, sleeping and eating well, we need the skills to feel mentally fit too.”