Last week was Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme this year was Anxiety. The timing couldn’t have been more appropriate as this year it fell the week before exams began. Students explored different coping strategies to help keep their feelings of anxiety under control and prevent them becoming a problem. They tried different breathing exercises and looked at ways they can practise self-care, plus they explored relaxation apps (like Chill Panda) that were built to help young people manage their worries and improve their wellbeing. 

In addition, Year 9 attended a workshop called Active Bystander by Talk Consent, which invited open conversations about beliefs that could escalate to problematic outcomes. Students learnt about how to be an active bystander when coming across misogynistic attitudes, and how to challenge negative behaviours safely to help reduce more “serious” forms of sexual violence. Big thanks to Beth and Mervin from Talk Consent for this great opportunity. 

May 17th was International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, and we interrupted form time activities to celebrate this important day which aims to raise awareness of violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, as well as to celebrate diversity within the LGBTQ+ community. We looked at how we can stand up against all forms of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, and highlighted how powerful our words are and that we should chose them carefully and make sure we never use offensive language. Our Head Student Grace then closed the assembly by talking to everyone about her own experiences and introduced plans for celebrating Pride Month in June.