Spotlight on student mental health at Stratton Upper School with a week of wellbeing

Student mental health was the focus of a week of activities at Stratton Upper School in Biggleswade as it hosted a StratFest Wellbeing Week.

The wellbeing week, which took place earlier this month, involved a series of workshops delivered by charities, local mental health services and creative organisations.

Sessions were open to students, parents and carers with the aim to help restore a sense of local community and provide support to the area, with the return to face-to-face teaching after lockdown.

Principal Roz Hodges said: “We recognise the importance of mental health and understand the impact this can have on our young peoples’ education and wellbeing.

"We are proud to have been able to organise this Wellbeing Week for our students so they could benefit from a range of free activities, both in person and online, that can promote good mental health practice.

“At Stratton, we always strive to create a safe and dependable learning environment for our young people and hope this week of valuable workshops have helped our students readjust to back to school learning.

“Thank you to all the organisations who dedicated their time towards delivering these events to our students and the local community, they had an enjoyable and most informative week.”

Workshops delivered throughout the week included sessions delivered by Positive Psychology Practitioner, Catherine Stacey, from Chill Your Beans Wellbeing.

Creative wellbeing events were also available by spoken word artist Quinton Green, who uses music mentoring, arts and poetry to explore mental health issues and Helen Shelswell from local charity Poets In, who offered a workshop for students on managing stress and anxiety.

One parent said: “As a parent of a son and daughter who have experienced anxiety, I found the resilience session so valuable. It helped me to understand the needs of my teenagers and effective ways to support them."

Due to the success of StratFest Wellbeing Week, the school will be doing follow up activities in September such as sessions delivered by mental health charity MIND and a sleep workshop from the mental health and emotional wellbeing service CHUMS.

Stratton Upper School also has big plans for their StratFest festival which is being held on September, 18.

The festival, which previously had to be postponed, is a community arts and wellbeing event supported by Inspiring Music, The Connolly Foundation and M&J Group Construction, with the aim of celebrating being back together both as a school and with the wider community.

There will be performances from local schools, performing arts organisations, community groups and local bands and artists.

Find out more about the festival at the school's website.