News
Mental Health Awareness Week - Monday 14th to Friday 18th May 2018
Posted on: May 15th 2018We have all been reading the stories in the national press about the ongoing mental health crisis that is plaguing our young children and teenagers. Tackling this issue is something every student, parent and teacher needs to take seriously and so to raise awareness of the importance of mental health we have organised a range of activities to take place in school this week. Students will have assemblies and PSHE tutorials 
designed to educate them in how to look after their mental health and they can take part in a lunchtime event called ‘Curry and Chaat’ on Wednesday 16th when they can eat lunch and spend time talking to staff and students about how they stay mentally healthy or to learn more about where they can get help and advice particularly in our ‘Be Well’ zones (SSC, N15 and W22). All students will be given a card encouraging them to look after their mental health so please use this as a discussion point at home to see how well you and your child are looking after yourselves.
Also on Wednesday, students can attend our cinema showing of Inside Out, the 
children’s animation film about emotions and how to deal with them. Tickets can be purchased for £3 on parent pay and on the door and popcorn is included.
We are also raising money for the mental health charity, Mind. Throughout the week students can purchase ribbons and wristbands to show their support for the need to increase funding to help the growing number of young people affected by mental health problems.
We haven’t forgotten that teaching and non-teaching staff need to stay mentally 
healthy too and so we are holding the first of our staff ‘be well’ sessions on Wednesday and this week’s activity is trampolining. We will also be holding a cake sale for staff only to raise money for Mind.
Finally, our focus on mental health isn’t for this week only. Our PSHE programme is designed to pinpoint the times during a child’s time here at Southgate that they may need further advice and information about keeping healthy. Whether that is at the start of the academic year when they may need help with transition and friendships or before the exams season when they’ll need advice about a healthy revision programme. Mental Health awareness will continue to be a priority for the school so look out for more information in the future about how your child can remain mentally fit.
