Mental Health Awareness Week

Youth Mental Health Summit

St Dunstan’s College was delighted to host its inaugural Youth Mental Health Summit on Friday 8 October, 2021. The summit, which was hosted in the College’s Great Hall, was attended by more than 100 students from schools across the country. The Head, Nick Hewlett opened the summit, acknowledging the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health. He explained: ‘The world has been through one of the biggest shocks in the last 60 or 70 years, and with any great shock comes a fundamental change in society’s perceptions and values – and that’s what we’re in the middle of right now. We understand that the world we live in today, for all of us, but particularly for young people, is a challenging one. A very, very challenging one.’ Sir Anthony Seldon, former ViceChancellor of the University of Buckingham, and previous Deputy Head of St Dunstan’s, opened the summit with the keynote ‘Enough talk: how does one improve student mental health in practice?’ St Dunstan’s Deputy Head Jade McLellan also led a keynote talk ‘Child and adolescent brain development,’ and Tom Telford, Head of Adventurous Activities, spoke about ‘Thriving in a stressful environment.’ Following the keynote talks, students then took part in a carousel of workshops. This included ‘Adaptability in a changing digital world’ hosted by Finalsite’s Lori Foster and Jak Blackwood; ‘Managing your stress container’ led by St Dunstan’s Head of Psychology, Lois Haddington; ‘Understanding thought processes’ with the school’s counsellors Julia Gray and Fugen Hassan; and ‘Thriving in a stressful environment’ with Tom Telford. All of the Summit’s talks are available to watch on our YouTube channel

Hello Yellow Day

We celebrated Mental Health Awareness week with Hello Yellow Day, where students around the College wore a piece of yellow clothing to raise awareness for Young Minds.