PROMOTING POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING

from The North Londoner 2018

NLCS SUMMER FESTIVAL

Three years ago, we created a Mental Health Committee, with the aim of reducing the stigma surrounding mental health and providing an additional support network for students. Since then, we have grown from a committee of 6 to a society of over 30. As well as promoting campaigns and raising awareness through regular topical discussion groups and our termly magazine Speak Out, we helped to launch a new peer mentoring system. This includes ‘Tea and Chat’ sessions in which anyone in the senior school can chat about things they have on their mind and get to know students from other years. We offer one-on-one sessions, and also opened an email service for easier communication between mentors and mentees.

Last May we hosted our first major series of events during Mental Health Awareness Week. The whole school took part, including collaborations with many societies, ranging from LGBT+ society to Philosophy, helping to broaden everyone’s perceptions about mental wellbeing. For the younger girls, clubs such as Mad Hatters got involved, discussing books surrounding mental health. For the Upper School, girls were able to examine mental health in more detail, for example, Debating society held a debate titled “THB presentation of mental health issues in the media has a negative effect” which held many enriching discussions.

The week was particularly important as it marked our introduction as a new society. We gave assemblies, we published an edition of Speak Out and launched our weekly discussion groups and ‘Tea and Chat’ sessions. A pledge board was on display in the dining hall lobby, where both students and staff voiced their support and promised to help end the stigma about mental health.

This term, we held our first Mental Health Conference. The evening consisted of three talks; one from the Medical Director of the Anna Freud Centre, about growing minds and how life becomes more complicated in adolescent years. The next two were given by Time To Change, one of the UK’s largest Mental Health campaigns. Firstly Jocelyn Cox spoke about how they help to normalise talking about mental health, and secondly Marium, one of the charity’s ‘Young Champions’, gave an emotive account of her experiences with mental health, telling us how she overcame her struggles with the support of her school. Finally, the Samaritans gave a talk on their mission and small things we can do to look after our own mental health daily. The evening concluded with a number of workshops and was a huge success, with a large turnout including students from neighbouring schools such as the London Academy and QE Boys.

The discussions about mental health did not end there. For Time To Talk Day we ran stalls giving out free resources, as well as fun things to raise awareness for the campaign, including badges and temporary tattoos. We also held a fundraiser for the Anna Freud Centre. We pitted the Classics Department against the Biology department, who had to answer questions about the school such ‘which teacher gives the best life advice?’ in a Family Fortunes style game. Over 100 students came to support this highly entertaining event, raising £60.

We are delighted to have been able to launch so many new events in the past year and can’t wait to see where the new members will take the society next term. By Cassie Chan, Shivani Dasani, Saira Mattoo, Mental Health Society