We are proud to announce that our participation in the LightBulb Mental Health Roadshow as part of Children’s Mental Health Week, was a huge success.

The initiative was hosted by the LightBulb team from the St Andrew’s College, who are based at St Andrew’s Healthcare, a mental health charity based in Northampton.

Over the course of the week teachers, parents and carers, were invited to take part in free online mental health sessions, which talked about symptoms, support and signposted available resources. We hope that everyone found the online content useful.

Some of our Year 7 and 8 students took part in ‘connecting with music’ during a well-being session led by Rebecca Buckley and our Year 9 students participated in a ‘What is Mental Health’ talk by Paul Hanrahan, as part of the LightBulb Roadshow tour– opening up conversations about what mental health is and how to look after it.

Staff and students also received wristbands to wear and write messages of support on for someone who may be going through a period of low mental health.

BWA teacher of Science and Maths, Sammy Hallybone, the Lead of Culture, Ethos & Wellbeing at BW said, ‘It was fantastic to have the LightBulb team from St Andrews in to talk to our students. Mental health is a vital part of our health, and our students deserve the right to be well-educated on the topic and empowered both to look after their own mental health and to talk openly about it with others. Our Year 9 students engaged fantastically with their 'What is mental health' talk, asking insightful questions and the Year 7 and 8 students were very enthusiastic in the 'connecting with music' session. I think the most useful piece of advice was about asking twice - the first response when we ask how someone is can be automatic "Fine!" "Good, thank you?", but when we ask again, we show we are here to listen, we show we care about the answer, and that makes us more likely to have meaningful conversations.’