mental health & wellbeing

Crookhorn College is fully committed to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing for all. Our whole College ethos is built on the three strands of the CORNERSTONES, OPEN MIND and GO WEST and it is GO WEST that is most relevant here. GO WEST is how we look after ourselves, focusing on the simple strategy of Walking; Eating; Sleeping; Talking.

Through the College’s Mental Health & Wellbeing Action Plan we aim to:

Foster a whole College culture of promoting positive conversations about mental health.
Develop the use of a common language to address mental health issues and tackle stigma.
Increase and improve students’ awareness and experiences of mental health information, support and services.
Highlight where support is available to the whole College community including students, parents/carers and staff.

COLLEGE MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT TEAM

The College’s Mental Health Support Team, led by Miss Bishop (Assistant Headteacher - Senior Mental Health Lead & DSL), is made up of:

Miss Cromey (Child Protection Manager & College Counsellor)
Mrs Brown (Pastoral Support Officer)
Mrs Wishart (Attendance & EBSA Family Support Worker).

The team also works very closely with our SEN and Resilience Room teams, as well as the Heads of House and the rest of the College pastoral team.

“The College’s work in supporting mental health is worthy of dissemination across the County.”

LLPR visit report – Jan 2023

WELFARE PREFECTS

The support provided by the College’s Welfare Prefects is invaluable. They support in the GO WEST & Mental Health Year 7 Smart Start sessions and SLT assemblies throughout the year. In visiting all Year 7 students from their House during Tutor Time in the Autumn term, they enable our new students to put faces to names, share anything that might be troubling them as well as giving them the opportunity to ensure they know how to use our itslearning ‘I Need Support’ button.

Throughout the year, the Welfare Prefects also check in with a range of other students and regularly review the itslearning support pages. They also revisit each Tutor Group at least once a term to remind the students of the support available and to give them another opportunity to raise any concerns they may have.

ITSLEARNING

The ‘Keeping You Safe at Crookhorn College’, ‘Promoting Positive Mental Health’ and ‘LGBTQ+’ pages featured on our College learning platform ‘itslearning’ mean that our students know where they can access a wealth of online guidance and support at any time.

The itslearning ‘I Need Support’ button also means that our students can request support at the click of a button and know that a member of the College pastoral team will follow this up with them at the first possible opportunity.

'I need support' button - student login

SUPPORTing your child with their mental wellbeing

1. GO WEST

To begin, how well is your child following the College’s strategy for how we look after ourselves?

Walking: Is your child exercising regularly? How do they travel to College? What do you/can you do to help your child to be more active in the evenings and weekends?

Eating: Is your child maintaining a healthy diet? Are they eating regular, nutritious meals? Are they keeping well hydrated?

Sleeping: Does your child get plenty of rest and good quality sleep? Do they have a clear routine? Do they feel safe and comfortable? Are they free from devices?

Talking: Do you talk with your child daily about how their day has been and how they are? Do you encourage sharing thoughts and feelings at home?

2. Strategies to try

If you are happy that your child is following all four strands of GO WEST, but still find it difficult to manage how they are feeling, try the following:

Allocate some worry time: 5/10 minutes at a certain point each day to talk through anything that is troubling them and, where possible, to help them to problem solve.
Create a worry box or a list of worries to then put aside and address later Practise breathing techniques such as ‘Take 5 breathing’, square breathing, 5/4/3/2/1 grounding.
Encourage journalling.
Promote time to simply unwind – listening to music, getting creative, dog walk… no screens!
Check the College’s ‘Promoting Positive Mental Health’ page on itsLearning for further suggestions and support.

3. still struggling?

If your child is still struggling, dedicate some time to talk though the apparent issues in more detail and make a note of key points. Think: What? When? Where? Why? How? These notes can then be shared when following any of the below routes for further support:

ISSUES IN COLLEGE: If subject-specific, contact relevant Head of Subject. If more general, contact Tutor, Head of House or SENCO. Your child can also seek support via the College’s ‘I Need Support’ button on itsLearning.
ISSUES OUT OF COLLEGE: Can your GP help? Why not try the following: Youth Safe Haven, Havant; Lighthouse, Leigh Park; Off The Record; Kooth; MIND; CAMHS.
ISSUES ONLINE: Is your child’s online access age-appropriate? Are you able to monitor their use of social media apps, etc? Depending on the nature of the concern, you can seek further support through: NSPCC; Childline; Police (101).
UNSURE/UNKNOWN: If you remain unsure as to what is troubling your child, contacting their Tutor or Head of House may be a good place to start to try to unpick the issues. If your child is adamant that there is no clear cause linked to College, please refer to the ‘Issues out of College’ section above for signposting to external support.

4. MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT TEAM / SCHOOL NURSE REFERRALS

When a clearer picture has been formed of the challenges that your child is facing and relevant support routes have been followed, it may be appropriate for the College to further support with a referral to the Mental Health Support Team and/or School Nursing Team.

Please contact Miss Bishop, Assistant Headteacher - Senior Mental Health Lead to discuss further.

5. while you are waiting

Whichever form of support you are accessing, there is likely to be some waiting time. While you wait, try to maintain the following:

Keep talking – both with your child and any involved agencies.
Make a point of noticing successes, however small or trivial they may seem.
Use Kooth: Free, safe, instant, anonymous support for your child online.
Regularly check and follow up: Not heard anything for a couple of weeks? Call or email to check status/progress of the support you are trying to access.

6. urgent crisis support

Childline: Children (under 19) can call 0800 1111
Shout: Text ‘HANTS’ to 85258
Mental Health Triage service: Call 111
In case of emergency, call 999 or head straight to A&E

SUPPORT FROM EXTERNAL AGENCIES

Being able to access specialist support from external agencies, and the wealth of experience and expertise they can offer, is another vital part of our drive to promote positive mental health for all. The College works closely with our colleagues from the Havant Mental Health Support Team, Havant & East Hands MIND (Lighthouse Project/Safehaven), Southern Health School Nursing Team, Off The Record, Motiv8, Y Services, Stop Domestic Abuse and Citizens Advice Havant and are always looking for ways to further build on these relationships in supporting our whole College community.

Teams from both MIND and the Mental Health Support Team deliver assemblies in College and set up stands at our parents’ evenings for our families to find out more. The Mental Health Support Team continue to support the College pastoral team and have delivered a number of parent/carer workshops in College too.

Links to external support:

WALKTOBER 2024

For the third year running, the College is taking part in Walktober - an active travel initiative held to celebrate International Walk to School Month and promote coming together for our wellbeing, our community and our planet. Tying in with the College's GO WEST strategy for how we look after ourselves, we are keen for as many students and staff as possible to get involved again this year. Walktober is being launched to all students during Tutor Time this week and will continue to be revisited throughout the month.

At the end of the month, students can enter their completed Activity Card into a prize draw with some great prizes up for grabs. Following Nicole H’s success in 2022, our very own Bella VB achieved third place last year and won £15 Love2Shop vouchers, the geography game ‘Maponimoes’ and a selection of My Journey Hampshire stationery.

Will there be another Crookhorn winner this year? You've got to be in it to win it!

THE #BEEWELL PROJECT

The #BeeWell project is a national youth-centred programme aiming to ensure that youth wellbeing becomes a priority. The project began in Manchester in 2019 and the College is proud to have been one of the pathfinder schools in the second stage of its rollout to Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton in the Summer term of 2023.

In Autumn 2023, our Year 8 and Year 10 students completed the #BeeWell survey with the College’s response rate being one of the highest in the region. In February 2024, the College received its personalised report which is now being used to inform our next steps. Alongside our in-house action planning, two of our Year 10 students are also currently involved in the #BeeWell Young Researchers Programme working with researchers from the University of Manchester in their analysis of the national findings and six students from across the Year Groups are now involved in the #BeeWell Youth Steering Group.

visit the #bee Well website