At Chiswick School, we believe in promoting positive mental health and emotional wellbeing. Prioritising the wellbeing of students and staff ensures that good teaching and learning can take place, and that the school is a community where everyone feels able to thrive.
Mental Health - “is a state of well being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community” - World Health Organisation
Chiswick School aims to support each student with their emotional health and wellbeing. This includes promoting positive mental health. As a staff body we approach this in various ways, including through our safeguarding team, pastoral team, tutor time programmes, PSHCE lessons and external visitors. We also work in partnership with Hounslow Youth Counselling Service, Grow Therapeutic Coaching, our local MIND charity, the Mental Health Support Team and other outside agencies.
The teenage years are both exciting and challenging for parents and carers. It can be hard to know whether a teenager's feelings and behaviour are normal or becoming a problem.
For any student who may be experiencing poor mental health, our safeguarding team will be available to listen, offer advice, mentor or signpost parents/students to agencies who can offer guidance.
If you are in any way concerned for your child and would like more information please see the sections specifically relating to those conditions most common to secondary school aged children and young adults. You will find information on the condition, what signs to look out for at home and links to agencies offering support.
Childline
Telephone: 0800 1111
Website: www.childline.org.uk
ChildLine is a private and confidential service for children and young people up to the age of nineteen. You can contact a ChildLine counsellor for free about anything - no problem is too big or too small.
Kooth - Online counselling for young people
Website: www.kooth.com
Free, safe and anonymous online support. The Kooth #DontDoItAloneCampaign video is available here: youtu.be/PEShtD0vTzc.
Mind Infoline
Telephone: 0300 123 3393 (9am-6pm Monday to Friday) or text 86463
Email: info@mind.org.uk
Website: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/for-young-people/
Mind provides confidential mental health information services. With support and understanding, Mind enables people to make informed choices. The Infoline gives information on types of mental health problems, where to get help, drug treatments, alternative therapies and advocacy. Mind works in partnership with around 140 local Minds providing local mental health services.
Samaritans
Telephone: 116 123 (24 hours a day, free to call)
Email: jo@samaritans.org
Website: https://www.samaritans.org
Provides confidential, non-judgemental emotional support for people experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those that could lead to suicide. You can phone, email, write a letter or in most cases talk to someone face to face.
Anna Freud National Centre for Children & Families
Anna Freud Centre's child mental health experts have written a leaflet to provide simple advice and guidance to parents and carers about how to make conversations about their child's feelings part of everyday life.
Self-Harm UK
A website dedicated to self-harm recovery, insight and support.
Self-Harm Guidance for Parents/Carers
NSPCC Self-Harm Guidance
Self-harm describes any behaviour where a young person causes harm to themselves in order to cope with thoughts, feelings or experiences they are not able to manage in any other way. It most frequently takes the form of cutting, burning or non-lethal overdoses in adolescents, while younger children and young people with special needs are more likely to pick or scratch at wounds, pull out their hair or bang or bruise themselves.
www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/self-harm/
Mental Health & Suicidal Thoughts
PAPYRUS - https://papyrus-uk.org/im-thinking-about-suicide/
PAPYRUS ‘Hopeline UK’: 0800 068 4141
NSPCC Parents/Carers - Mental Health & Suicidal Thoughts
Young Mind Parents/Carers - Survival Guide
Young people may experience complicated thoughts and feelings about wanting to end their own lives. Some young people never act on these feelings though they may openly discuss and explore them, while other young people die suddenly from suicide apparently out of the blue.
How to help your child beat exam stress
https://www.studentminds.org.uk/examstress.html
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/coping-with-exam-stress/
Obsessions and compulsions
OCD UK: www.ocduk.org/ocd
Obsessions describe intrusive thoughts or feelings that enter our minds which are disturbing or upsetting; compulsions are the behaviours we carry out in order to manage those thoughts or feelings. For example, a young person may be constantly worried that their house will burn down if they don’t turn off all switches before leaving the house. They may respond to these thoughts by repeatedly checking switches, perhaps returning home several times to do so. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) can take many forms – it is not just about cleaning and checking.