Harleston Sancroft Academy is the only Church of England All Through School in Norfolk. Sitting at the very heart of the Harleston community, it provides an excellent education in a nurturing, family environment.
In this week's blog we will look at how they have done a brilliant job of implementing the RISE Up programme within their form time programme to boost the mental wellbeing of their young people.
Harleston Sancroft is one of over 60 schools we support in Norfolk as part of our partnership with Norfolk County Council.
Molly Harris spearheaded the programme by completing our online training, setting the vision for the Academy and adapting the RISE Up resources to meet the needs of Sancroft students for her team of form tutors.
Tutors deliver fortnightly activities on a Monday afternoon covering a range of early intervention wellbeing topics such as mental fitness, healthy habits and accessing the happiness chemicals.
Lewis Disbury is a PE Teacher and form tutor who delivers the RISE Up activities to his vertical tutoring group. Lewis said 'I really enjoy delivering the activities with my form. It is a great opportunity to discuss all things well being with my tutees, it has prompted some brilliant conversations and it helps me show the young people in my form that I care about them.
The RISE Up activities are useful for promoting conversations, breaking the stigma in discussing mental health and helping our young people realise that it is ok to not be ok.
Our young people particularly benefitted from understanding the link between physical activity and mental wellbeing, and how different activities help our young people manage their mental wellbeing. Our school is really proactive about our children’s mental health.
We are now about to add the RISE Up programme to some of our PE lessons as well to incorporate physical activity to boost our children's wellbeing, and to ensure PE is meaningful for all our young people.'
The RISE Up programme is part of a range of methods the Academy uses to ensure the mental wellbeing of their young people. The Academy has a group of Student Mental Health Leaders in the Secondary Phase who raise awareness about mental wellbeing, fundraise, and present in assemblies.
Their next step involves buddying up with younger students who are part of the wellbeing council that works within the Primary Phase to support them and the initiatives they lead on.
Amelia is one such brilliant Mental Health leader, our founder Neil Moggan, met on a recent visit to the school, who elegantly explained the role she and her peers provide.
On Neil’s visit to the school, it was fantastic to see Executive Headteacher, Rob Connelly, run a year 11 basketball club at lunchtime during wet weather to help his year 11 students regulate themselves and have a more productive afternoon.
As a former PE teacher, Mr Connelly embraces the way physical activity combined with outstanding relationships can be used to improve mental wellbeing, and the benefits the wider Academy gains from that. The result is healthier, happier young people who are thriving in the classroom and beyond.
'As a community we have benefitted greatly from the ongoing work and support offered by Future Action and the Rise Up programme. Neil has played a crucial role in developing our PE curriculum, aligned to our vision where all members of the community are supported to experience ‘Life In All Its Fullness’.
We are acutely aware of the ongoing and ever-changing pressures and challenges faced by children and the wider community and we have a shared responsibility to provide support, both within, and beyond the classroom because people matter.'
How we can help you
If you would like to join our movement of inspirational teachers, then the RISE Up online teacher training course guides you and your colleagues on how to reduce students' anxiety, build their confidence and create a sustainable early intervention mental wellbeing programme within 90 days.
Easy to follow videos and a comprehensive set of editable resources will save you and your colleagues hours of time planning and creating resources.
To take the first step, take our School Wellbeing scorecard here:
We hope you found this week's blog insightful, we would love you to join our community of teachers committed to transforming the life chances of their children.
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Thank you for all your efforts this half term and have a fantastic break.
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