Student Mental Health & Safeguarding
At King Edward VI Lordswood School for Girls, we take the emotional well-being and safeguarding of our students very seriously. Laura Betty, Deputy Headteacher, is the school’s Senior Mental Health Lead. As well as daily form time check ins with their Review Tutors, students have numerous ways in which they can access support should they need it. All staff are responsible for the welfare of all students and a Designated Safeguarding Lead is available at any time of the school day should a student need to see them. Members of the Student Support Team, Ms McKenzie, Mrs Baxter and Mr McDonald are also available to meet with students and, for those students who require more consistent support, can provide regular one-to-one mentoring sessions.
King Edward VI Lordswood School for Girls is a member of the NewStart Programme. NewStart is a prevention and early-intervention programme to promote mental health and emotional well-being in our school communities. Led by Birmingham Education Partnership and funded by the NHS, the NewStart programme aims to build resilience and well-being for young people through a school-based community development model. NewStart is working with schools to help staff know earlier when young people may be experiencing poor emotional health and to put support in place for them sooner. Understanding how the whole school can support such students enables all pupils to achieve better outcomes.
When required, students can be referred to Place 2 Be for counselling by a trained professional. We also have 15 trained Mental Health First Aiders and a large Designated Safeguarding Team to support students. Further support and interventions can be found in our Pastoral Toolkit
To promote healthy minds students learn about their mental health in PSHCE and assemblies. We have a ‘student designed’ rewards system in school to recognise and reward our students. Our staff are trained annually on how to support students where needed. We have a pro-active and large student body ensuring all of our students have a voice in school.
