Supporting Mental Health

Supporting the mental health of our students and staff is so important to support each other to ensure happier and healthier of everyone.

As a school and community we work all year round to share the 'tools' and strategies we all need to cope with the emotional challenges we all face in life in a safe and supportive environment.

We have teams around school that support students - Form Tutors, Pastoral team, Safeguarding team, Christian Youth Support team, Manchester United Foundation team, Thrive team and SEND team, as well as all our staff around school. We also work closely with local agencies to provide support and in some cases counselling.

Through the year we raise awareness and money with students and staff participating in events such as:

Be the 'i' in Kind - Anti-Bullying Week

The theme of Anti-Bullying Week this year, was ‘One Kind Word’ We know kindness fuels kindness, and one kind word can change a whole situation. Being kind starts with us, deciding to do the right thing. During this week we encouraged students to be the ‘I’ in KIND, and managed to…. raise an amazing £88.50 – WOW!

The money raised has gone towards buying lots of books for our library, based on anti-bullying, kindness and celebrating differences. The books will arrive soon, and we will ask some students to read them, and provide a book review so they can be advertised across the Academy, both in Primary and Secondary.

#OneKindWord leads to another. Kindness fuels kindness. It can change the course of a conversation and break the cycle of bullying. That's why we are supporting #AntiBullyingWeek.

Hello Yellow Day - World Mental Health Awareness Day

There were lots of activities across the Academy. The Primary students wore yellow clothes and donated, plus did activities in class. All of the staff across the Academy also wore yellow, and donated as part of a staff raffle. Raffle prizes were kindly donated by McLeod Private Dining, Treaty Bobs, Liberty and Blush, Emma Louise Beauty, Jack in A Box Balloons, Enjoy Bakes and Home by Harri.

We also held a bake sale, which was brilliantly supported. Staff brought in cakes to be sold, and staff and students across Primary and Secondary all purchased them during break time.

Around the Academy there were lots of yellow posters explaining why support of the campaign is so important, and signposting students who would like some support. The Academy was also decorated amazingly with lots of yellow balloon arches and decorations. It certainly looked very bright!

The aim was to brighten up our Friday, and show each other that none of us are alone. There is always someone to help and we are all #STRONGERTOGETHER.

Bolton St Catherine’s Academy raised an amazing £314.53p. This was donated to Young Minds, a great charity doing some brilliant work for young people.

Social Media Kindness Day

Whilst recognising many of our students are on social media and the negative impact this can have at times, we chose to engage with Social Media Kindness Day in school.

For this we asked students and staff members to help make a video where they held signs with alarming facts about the negative impact, whilst also holding signs that showed they were pledging to make social media a kinder place.

Our video was then shown around school and also on social media, which then got re-shared by the campaigners themselves. It was great to see BSCA being seen to be standing boldly as party of this campaign. This video can also be found and seen on both our Instagram and our You Tube page by following the link below.

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj6xQcH_X-I

Diversity Week - celebrating LGBTQ+

BSCA staff dress in different colours of the rainbow, to show their support for our students.

At BSCA, we are committed to creating an inclusive community where everyone, staff and pupils, can be themselves, and strive to achieve their potential. We believe in the power of showing care in all areas and this is why we supported #SchoolDiversityWeek

Our staff also used this as an opportunity to fundraise for our own LGBTQ+ group.

If our students ever need a safe place to speak, or have questions, we are here to support them. As part of School Diversity Week, we displayed posters around school, which include statements such as ‘Homophobia has no place in our school’, and ‘Be yourself, everyone else is already taken’. These also include a sticker at the bottom, which says ‘This is a safe place to talk’. We feel it is important that our students know they can speak to members of staff, and hope that as they see the posters around school, they are reminded that we are there for them.

#BeeWell Programme

#BeeWell is a programme that is led by the University of Manchester, the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families, and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, that combines academic expertise with youth-led change to make the wellbeing of young people everybody’s business.

Designed by young people, #BeeWell, will survey the wellbeing of pupils in secondary schools across Greater Manchester, and use the results, in partnership with schools, to deliver positive change in all our communities.

For 2022/23 this programme is for Year 9 and 10 students.

#BeeWell will seek to create the conditions for all our young people to thrive by:

listening to young people’s voices
acting together for change
celebrating young people’s wellbeing

The survey

The survey is completed online
Pupils access the survey using a unique password (provided by #BeeWell)
Before they answer the questions, pupils will read some information about the
survey and confirm that they’re happy to proceed (this is embedded in the online
survey, the content is available on the #BeeWell website)
The survey takes 20 to 30 minutes to complete
Pupils can choose not to answer any question

The questions

The #BeeWell Survey has two distinct sections that together reflect what young people have told us matters most to them: the Domains and Drivers of Wellbeing.

Three Domains: (1) Meaning, Purpose and Control, (2) Understanding Yourself, and (3) Emotions.
Six Drivers: (1) Health and Routines, (2) Hobbies and Entertainment, (3) Relationships, (4) School, (5) Environment and Society, and (6) Future

The measures and items used in the survey have been identified through the academic literature and UK cohort studies and evaluated in terms of psychometric properties and accessibility.

Agreeing for your child to be part of this research

We hope you will allow your child to take part in this research.
Year 10 are taking part in the BeeWell Survey during Autumn Term 2023.
In consenting on their behalf, you are agreeing for your child to participate in the #BeeWell survey, for their survey data to be linked to background information about them, and for future linkage of their data to other information held about them (outlined above in ‘data protection and confidentiality’).
If you do not give your consent, you need to return the form included in the #BeeWell Parent and Carer Information Sheet as soon as possible, and no later than 16th November 2023.
Choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you or your child in any way.
It will be made clear to all children that it is up to them if they take part. They will also be reminded that they can skip questions if they don’t want to answer them.

Please click on the following links for the information sheet or to opt out of the BeeWell survey for your child in Year 10. If you do not consent to your child taking part you must return the form to Lawrence at The University of Manchester #BeeWell Team - lawrence.wo@manchester.ac.uk

- Urdu BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

- Arabic BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

- Bengali BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

- English BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

- Gujarati BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

- Polish BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

- Punjabi BeeWell Parent Information Sheet

Website: https://www.gmbeewell.org/

MY LIFE IN BOLTON - Support across Bolton

If you don't already know about MY LIFE IN BOLTON you might want to take a look (link below). It is a directory of services and resources you might find helpful. You can search a word- e.g. mental health and it will bring you up mental health services that are available.

https://mylifeinbolton.org.uk/families.aspx

Kooth.com

Kooth.com can provide young people in Bolton with mental health support without the usual wait times. It also provides a variety of tools and activities 24/7, 365 days a year.

This is a free service commissioned to work with young people in Bolton 11-25, providing anonymised support. To find out more please register on one of the Eventbrite dates, you will be given the opportunity to ask questions.

Email: hhook@kooth.com or tboroughs@kooth.com for further information