Mental Wellbeing

Our Vision

Ensuring the happiness and safety of all our pupils has always been core to what we do at Wells Cathedral School. We want all our pupils to be happy and successful, but in that order. That is why we strive to ensure our pastoral care is pupil-centred and allembracing. Recently, increasing focus has been given to the wellbeing of all school pupils, particularly with regard to their mental health. As a society, we have become much more attuned to the reality that a person’s mental wellbeing is just as important as their physical wellbeing. We are proud at Wells of the way we promote healthy lifestyles for our pupils, and of the vision we already have in place to help ensure pupils are wellcared for, whatever their particular needs or whenever they might encounter difficulties.

Key Initiatives

Some of our initiatives for our Senior School pupils include:

• A focus on mental health in Saint Andrew’s Lodge

• Our staff welfare group who meet weekly to discuss wellbeing issues

• A counselling and Mental Health Practitioner

• Welfare Captains

• Our Tutor Programme

• Mental Health Leads

• Wellbeing Wednesdays

• Mind Body Voice (our programme for Years 8-9 to enable them to become confident communicators with a strong sense of self and wellbeing)

• Training from Girls On Board, an approach which helps girls, their parents and their teachers to understand the complexities and dynamics of girl friendships

• School Council

• Prefect Support Group

• Inclusivity Group

• Informal drop-in sessions with a counsellor or Mental Health Lead

• Wellbeing Hub.

We are looking at expanding our wellbeing offering, taking into account our pupils’ feedback and experiences.

We have received Optimus Education’s prestigious Wellbeing Award. Developed in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), the award is granted to schools who are able to demonstrate that they have made significant changes to their long-term wellbeing culture for pupils, parents and staff.