MENTAL HEALTH & WELLBEING LEAD BULLETIN APRIL 2025
Dear Mental Health & Wellbeing Leads, Welcome to the April Mental Health and Wellbeing Bulletin.
Welcome Back! We hope that you have had a productive first week of the new Summer term. Our April Mental Health and Wellbeing Bulletin includes the usual key resources, a range of information and free upcoming offers available to you, including details on Mental Health Awareness Week, which takes place from the 12th - 18th May 2025.
Wear it Green Day returns on Thursday 15th May and is a fantastic way for your school to get involved and support mental health. Pupils are encouraged to wear something green for the day. We have included a range of games and activities, posters and certificates that you can use in the classroom during the week to help raise awareness of mental health.
If your school is taking part in Wear It Green Day, please forward any details and pictures to the team at: schoolmentalhealthsupport@bromley.gov.uk. We would love to share any activities in our May or June Mental Health and Wellbeing Bulletin.
We have also included an informative section on internet safety and how to keep a child safe online. Included are lesson plans, resources and guidance, all the information you need to teach online safety in the classroom.
Please remember to save the date for the next Mental Health and Wellbeing Networking Event on the 9 July 2025 at The Warren In Croydon Road. The venue will be accessible from 10:45pm, for refreshments/networking and the meetings will start promptly at 11am. We aim to finish by 3 pm.
Calendar invites have been sent out. If you did not receive one, please contact the team at: School.MentalHealthSupport@bromley.gov.uk
We look forward to seeing you there!
RESOURCES AND INFORMATION THIS MONTH
Mental Health Awareness Week 12 to 18 May 2025
Spotlight Mental Health Awareness Week at your School!
This year, Mental Health Awareness Week will take place from 12 to 18 May 2025.
The theme for 2025 is 'Community', and the aim is to use Mental Health Awareness Week to celebrate the power and importance of community. The theme of ‘Community’ celebrates the incredible power and impact that communities can have on our mental health and wellbeing.
Supporting children and young people to better protect and nurture their mental health is more important than ever. Your school can get involved in the week in a variety of ways. The school pack linked below and provided by the Mental Health Foundation, is full of great discussion ideas, activities, and lesson plans to help your pupils understand mental health, including the benefits of being part of a healthy, caring community.
Included below are ten tips on getting involved in your community. Download the shareable PDF and read more on the blog, 'How community benefits your mental health'.
Wear it Green Day
Get creative by hosting a green themed dress down day, encourage your pupils to bake something green, or simply wear green ribbon badges, and raise awareness for mental health, whilst having a really fun day! We have included a collection of resources and other useful information to help get you started and promote your activities.
Further Resources for schools can be found on the links below including: conversation cards for the classroom, a quiz, best dressed rosettes, a scavenger hunt and many more.
THE BIG GREEN SCAVENGER HUNT
Keeping Children Safe Online
Children are increasingly connecting with the world through digital media. With technology constantly changing, it can be hard knowing how to keep children safe and healthy online.
We have included ideas below on what you can do is help minimise the negative impact on children, while encouraging healthy internet use.
On the below link you will find online safety advice, resources for professionals, children and parents, guides on how to talk to children and setting up parental controls
Many parents and carers feel unsure about how to talk to their child about sex, sexuality and relationships. The NSPCC have advice to help parents and carers support your child and keep them safe online. Please signpost the below information to the parents and carers in your setting.
In addition you will find on the link below practical tips to share with Parents and Carers about Child Safety Online.
Professionals Online Safety Helpline
The UK Safer Internet Centre supports professionals working with children and young people, with any online safety issue they may be having.
Free and Independent Advice
Their Professionals Online Safety Helpline is a free service for professionals and volunteers working with children and young people. It provides signposting, advice and mediation to resolve online safety issues staff face about themselves, such as protecting professional identity and online harassment, or problems affecting young people, for example cyber-bullying or sexting issues.
Availability
The helpline is open Monday to Friday, during normal working hours, and they aim to respond to calls within 3 hours where possible.
- Helpline : 0344 381 4772
- Email: helpline@saferinternet.org.uk
For further information and guidance click on the links below:
INACT (Increasing Adolescent Social and Community Support)
Do you want to help positively impact pupils’ social connections, mental health, school attainment and attendance? INACT is a national programme of work which aims to understand how social prescribing can benefit pupils who are reporting loneliness and low community connection. They are currently looking for schools to get involved in the project.
Many young people are reporting low community connection and loneliness, which is affecting their mental health, wellbeing, academic attainment, and school attendance. INACT (INcreasing Adolescent social and Community supporT) will understand the types of social and community networks young people use, what factors affect this, how to best support young people who report having low social and community networks or feel lonely, and how supporting these pupils improves their outcomes.
It is a collaboration between University College London, the University of Manchester, and the National Academy for Social Prescribing, funded by the Kavli Trust.
Following the success of INACT Phase 1 with 12 schools, they are now rolling out and expanding INACT nationally, as part of Phase 2 they are looking for schools to join INACT.
Schools that take part will get:
- A free DBS certified Link Worker to work with pupils in your school (worth up to £27,826)
- Tailored support to develop social pathways so that pupils can access local community support
- Sustainable pathways which can continue to be used once INACT has ended
- A personalised and comprehensive list of community resources in your local area
- Tailored reports on pupil’s mental health and wellbeing
- £500 for participation
Schools will need to commit 12 hours of staff time across the academic year for INACT. This does not need to be 1 member of staff but can be split across multiple staff members.
If you work in a school and would like to find out more about participating in INACT, sign up on the link below:
Partnership for Young London - Webinars
Partnership for Young London believes in a future where every young person’s right to wellbeing is recognised and fulfilled. With young people making up a quarter of London’s population, they are crucial to its future. Partnership for Young London are hosting a number of informative webinars over the next few months. Details are included below with links to sign up.
A launch event for Adolescent Safeguarding in London (ASIL): updated guidance for 2025
Time and Location: 14 May 2025, 10:30 – 12:00 Via Zoom
About the Event: The webinar will explore the challenges of applying relational practice in different contexts, including multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. Topics for investigation are likely to include conducive conditions associated with organisational culture, reflective practice and supervision and tools for relational working.
Understanding and Building Resilience
Time & Location: 30 Apr 2025, 10:30 – 12:00 via Zoom
About the Event: Everybody refers to resilience as a concept nowadays in relation to mental health. But what does resilience really mean? And, how can we build resilience in ourselves and others? This session will give you a chance to explore resilience in more detail.
Working with Parent/Carers
Time & Location: 28 May 2025, 10:30 – 12:00 via Zoom
About the Event: This session explores how parents and carers can play a role supporting the mental health of young people. It also examines how certain parenting can have a detrimental impact on young people's mental health.
Integrating a Trauma Informed Approach to Practice: Action Learning Sets
Time & Location: 03 Jun 2025, 10:00 – 12:00 via Zoom
About the Event: There can be barriers to integrating a trauma informed approach into actual practice and so this forum creates an opportunity to address these challenges, drawing on knowledge and insights from a consultant in trauma informed practice and other practitioners working across a range of contexts. It allows for an exploration of these issues in more depth, paying attention to different approaches and strategies for tackling them.
Worth It - Wellbeing and Resilience Guide for Teachers
Worth-it Positive Education is a Community Interest Company supporting schools, settings and organisations across the UK to improve children and young people's wellbeing, build resilience and provide early intervention programmes that help prevent the onset of mental health problems. They are committed to helping you support the children and pupils you work with.
Their online learning platform enables you to increase your and your school or setting’s capacity to support the development of positive mental health and wellbeing in children and young people with a variety of free resources for schools, covering:
- How to help the mental health of children and young people you work with
- How to help prevent mental health problems impacting children and young people you support
- Ideas and inspiration to help children and young people learn evidence based strategies for wellbeing
- Wellbeing and resilience learning opportunities and resources
- Ways to promote activities for wellbeing and resilience
- Strategic level advice to prevent the onset of mental health problems
Their Worth-It- Guide Wellbeing Guide contains 6 practical wellbeing activities developed by young people for young people. The tools and techniques shared in this booklet are all simple and effective ways to improve wellbeing. Throughout this guide, you will find helpful quotes and tips from the young people who helped create it. All the information in this guide comes from positive psychology and evidence based coaching. This is the method that Worth-it use to help and support young people to improve their mental health and wellbeing.
In addition you can also access The ‘Wellbeing Activities Leaflet’ which is a free wellbeing resource designed for primary-aged children or for teachers, teaching assistants and support start to share wellbeing ideas with children and parents. It provides a simple but valuable evidence-based resource that is going to help the children you work with to use strategies that support wellbeing.
For further information, free resources and in depth guides please click on the links below:
KEY RESOURCES
The London Borough of Bromley bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external sites for answers to questions regarding its content.
Compiled by Samantha Walker - samantha.walker@bromley.gov.uk
Credits:
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