Encouraging our Girls to Express Themselves

At St Margaret’s Hampstead, we actively promote and support the positive mental health and wellbeing of our pupils. We want to support all the girls to be happy, healthy and safe. Our students are taught where and how to seek support, including who they can speak to in school if they are worried about their own or someone else’s mental wellbeing or ability to control their emotions (including issues arising online).

On Friday 7th February, we had a Mufti Day raising funds for Place2Be (https://superkind.org/campaign/st-margarets-school-hampstead-express-yourself) – a children’s mental-health charity with more than 30 years’ experience working with pupils, families and staff in UK schools. It provides mental-health support in schools through one-to-one and group counselling, using tried-and-tested methods backed by research. In addition, it also offers expert training and professional qualifications.

Its work is important because:

· 1 in 5 children and young people have a probable mental-health condition, and many continue to have these problems into adulthood.

· 50% of children and young people who have lifetime mental-health problems first experience symptoms by the age of 14.

· 1 in 10 boys aged 5-19 with a mental-health condition are suspended in some form from school

In the last school year, Place2Be supported over 45,000 children and young people, and more than 14,000 of them benefitted from its targeted clinical support.

Place2Be’s approach to children’s and young people’s mental health is to intervene early to prevent lifelong mental-health issues. They do this by:

· Providing support early, spotting mental-health problems before they develop and helping children and young people cope with challenges throughout their lives

· Using an effective therapeutic approach backed by research that combines several ways of working

· Offering a range of mental-health support services, including advice and support for families and school staff, to build resilience and raise awareness of mental health across the whole school community.