Churchill Awarded Healthy Minds recognition

Churchill Academy and Sixth Form are proud to have been recognised for the work they have been doing to support the mental wellbeing of students in school.

As part of the Healthy Schools Healthy Minds programme, Churchill identified two main areas of work; to support students with social, emotional and mental health needs using creative therapeutic approaches and to increase staff awareness and expertise in trauma.

By incorporating Thrive research and practice, staff have increased the ways they are able to support students with underlying distress and guide them through different coping mechanisms. Therapeutic groups have been set up for Year 7 and 8 students, enabling them to benefit from therapeutic writing, art and creative therapy.

In addition to the therapeutic groups, the school is disseminating the Thrive approach across the whole school, so that individual students who might benefit are identified and monitored by staff. All staff received training in trauma at the start of the year to aid with this and it has enabled staff to think about and understand the underlying causes of challenging behaviour.

Head teacher, Chris Hildrew commented, “We are delighted to receive this recognition of the work we are all doing to support the mental health of our young people. We recognise that tackling the mental health crisis is essential if we are to realise our vision of setting no limits on what we can achieve. This work is even more vital now than ever before, and the extensive training that our staff have undertaken will enable us to do everything we can to assist our students as they return to the school from the coronavirus closure.”