Mental Health and Wellbeing
At Longendale High school we recognise that young people flourish and reach their life potential when all barriers to school life are recognised and supported, to enable them to function at their best both in school and at home. With our vision in mind – we recognise the importance of positive wellbeing for all our staff and students.
We understand and value the importance of positive wellbeing and how crucial it is to support our students and their families through difficult times where there may be mental health conditions that impact on daily living significantly.
All our students access information and guidance on mental health and wellbeing through curriculum learning opportunities, PSHE specific lessons and themed assemblies by both school staff and external specialists.
How we can support families with mental ill health and well-being:
- Our young people all have a Form Tutor and a Head of Year who are monitoring and supporting their year group progress, engagement and overall barriers in any area.
- Our Aspire Centre staff are available to support any emerging barriers to all aspects of learning
- We have a group of Student Leaders who support other young people with peer support in school – they are available at start of the day, break and lunchtimes.
- Mrs Gage is the school Mental Health Lead – Mrs Gage can undertake an initial assessment with any students, that will help families understand what level of support may be most useful. We can then signpost or refer to external agencies or we can offer intervention in school.
- The Pastoral Team also work with Mrs Gage to offer support to our students with building self-esteem, managing strong feelings, exam stress and other support that strengthens resilience of our students.
- Mrs Gage is a trained Mental Health First Aider and can provide initial support and signpost families for ongoing specialist support as needed.
Our Mental Health Leader – Mrs Gage and our SEND team work together to support young people to access further resources if young people are significantly impacted by long standing mental health conditions, and it is becoming a Special Educational Need.
We also are aware of the stressful times families can face – so we can signpost families to the best external services in order to support if needed as well as utilising local services such as through the local Early Help services.
Mental Health Advice
If you need support or advice about mental health support, please contact Mrs Gage who will be able to support you to access the relevant support available to you and your family.
Young Minds has a text messaging service which provides free, 24/7 crisis support across the UK. Young people can access the text-message based service by texting YM to 85258.
Kooth - Free online counselling and wellbeing resources for young people kooth.com
Parenting: The Tameside Parenting Team can provide advice or support. Please see this website for further details: Parenting Support for Parents and Carers in Tameside
