SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY TC Achieves Wellbeing Award Over the course of their education, children spend over 7,800 hours at school. With such a significant amount of time spent in the classroom, schools provide an influential environment for promoting emotional wellbeing and identifying early behavioural changes and signs of mental distress. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom can help them to build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their mental health throughout their lives. Emotional wellbeing is a clear indicator of academic achievement, success and satisfaction in later life. Evidence shows that mental health and wellbeing programmes in schools can lead to significant improvements in children’s mental health, and social and emotional skills. Tettenhall College recently achieved the nationally recognised Wellbeing for Schools Award. A prestigious accolade awarded by Optimus Education in partnership with the National Children’s Bureau, the Wellbeing Award has been an opportunity for the School to include everyone in its community to reflect on areas of strength and potential improvement. The aim was to understand if TC has suitably effective practices and provisions in place, which truly promote the emotional wellbeing and mental health of both staff and pupils 64 and how to evolve these over time. It encourages a focus on developing the long-term culture of a school as needs change, and embedding an ethos where mental health is regarded as the responsibility of all. A ‘self-evaluation’ programme was co-ordinated throughout the whole School community, which concluded significant strengths and offered valuable guidance on areas for improvement. The awarding body concluded that Tettenhall College is a school with a real commitment to the wellbeing of all its stakeholders, and that the School demonstrates an existing and longstanding culture of promoting the wellbeing of pupils and of robust ongoing reflection and evaluation. It is as vital that our pupils develop the skills to cope with the stresses of everyday life, as it is that they succeed in other areas of school life – indeed some may argue this is the most important lesson they can learn. Jeff Shipway, Deputy Head, Pastoral and Jayne Hollinshead, Wellbeing Lead
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