You may remember a questionnaire being put out earlier this year. It was very much appreciated to everyone that answered and commented because it has been driving forward important changes and developments towards the way we promote positive mental health and wellbeing here at RBA.
You said:
“Young people seem to listen to their peers before their parents!”
“A few pupils have recently experienced the loss of a loved one and I believe there is no support in the school from a mental health nurse as the previous person is off.”
“Better communication from the school to pupils & families, currently very poor at Robert Burns Academy!”
“I believe the school would benefit from working more in partnership with other outside agencies, in particular, psychological services, to help to educate parents/carers in supporting their young person and/or in looking at mental health in adults.”
We did!
We are offering training opportunities for our pupils to become Wellbeing Champions which will offer pupil peer support by providing listening ears, setting up interest groups and being able to signpost peers to seek out supports. Please look at our Wellbeing Champion section for more details.
Before the summer we had staff become Companions by attending Seasons for Growth training. This will be offered to pupils as a small support group where they will attend 8 sessions. They will be supported with bereavement or any other big change or loss in their lives. We are busy organsing all the resources and working within the authority’s network of Seasons for Growth.
We have been making full use of our school App to communicate to our parents/carers, we have developed a Blog to help inform all our learning community in the quickest and easiest way possible of everything we are doing here at RBA to support you and your child in their mental health and wellbeing. Daily, we are speaking with our families and replying to emails and dealing with your queries and concerns as quickly and efficiently as possible. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement!
We now have the Exchange Counselling Service on campus 5 days a week who are working closely with the school to support your child. Teachers are becoming more informed about how to support our pupils with their mental health and wellbeing by going on training sessions such as the Wellbeing Champions. Within the authority the Health and Wellbeing Leads, Educational Psychologists and Teaching staff have designed and delivered twlight sessions for parents/carers on issues such as building resilence, anxiety and stress. These sessions were very greatly received and parents/carers have said they would like more of these in the future.
