News

The theme of this year's Children’s Mental Health Week (07^th February to 13^th February) was Growing Together. The theme looked at growing emotionally and finding ways to help each other grow. Challenges and setbacks can help our young people to grow and adapt. As well as this, trying new things can help them to move beyond their comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential.

At Nower Hill, we kicked off the week by exploring the theme of personal growth and the teenage brain in our Personal Development session during registration. Students learnt that growth doesn’t always have to be about developing new skills; it could be about making small changes that will help them to feel better.

During the week, our Sixth Form Wellbeing Representatives met with some of our Wellbeing Ambassadors to gain their views and insight on all things to do with Wellbeing and Mental Health here at school. They will be meeting with other year groups after the half term break. We shared a display outside our main hall with some “Growth Stories” that students could go home and listen to, from some well-known faces, including Dr Alex George and Olympic medallist Sky Brown. To end the week, our 6th Form Wellbeing Team held a lunch time drop in session. Students were able to drop by and take part in a range of activities including: mindfulness colouring; tips and coping skills; breathing and mindfulness exercises and writing positive affirmations to themselves and others. We are proud to have been able to support the week, along with nearly 600 other schools around the country and appearing on Place2Be’s map.  

Student Wellbeing and Mental Health continues to be a top priority at Nower Hill. Following on from feedback we received from our Wellbeing Ambassadors last term, we are pleased to announce that after the half term break we will be launching a “Wellbeing Drop In” space. This will be a safe space for our younger students to come and talk to some of their older peers. They can pop in for a chat and discuss anything that is worrying them or any concerns that they may have. The students running these drop in sessions have all had  Safeguarding Training  and have been given appropriate training on when they need to pass on concerns to members of staff. This will take place every Friday at lunchtime in I2. If you think that your child may benefit from this, please do encourage them to pop in for a session. Furthermore, to support families at home, we will be launching a Wellbeing page on our Nower Hill website. This will be full of links and tips to useful information to support you and your families at home. We will keep you updated when this page goes live. In the meantime, Harrow Council have partnered with Young Harrow Foundation to create an online hub for young people and families in Harrow to access local mental health and wellbeing services in the community.  

Finally, may we take this opportunity to remind you that if you are concerned about your child’s mental health and wellbeing, please do not hesitate to contact the school. Alternatively, do encourage your child to reach out and get the support from someone in school. The Helping Hands poster which is displayed in all classrooms is a useful reminder to them of all the support they are able to access in school.