The Dorcan Academy has achieved the Wellbeing award for schools that acknowledges what the Academy does to ensure that mental health and wellbeing sit at the heart of Academy Life.
Wellbeing is a holistic term that encompasses all aspects of a student’s life, including their physical, social, mental and emotional state. A student’s wellbeing can change from day to day, month to month and year to year. As well as increasing a person’s opportunity and choices in life, promoting mental health and wellbeing as a core role in education helps students:
To promote student wellbeing we have recruited student mental health champions and bought in a toolkit to train them so that they can start to carry out these roles. A wellbeing club has been set up for Y7.
The Dorcan Academy offers a wide range of extra-curricular clubs to support students’ wellbeing. Below are some of the opportunities that have been offered recently:
We have also developed a wellbeing referral route from the Strategy panel that meets each week to discuss key students in each house. This has enabled staff to work with students who need additional support to help their wellbeing and to ensure they maintain good attendance.
The Dorcan Academy supports staff wellbeing and encourages a work/life balance for all staff seeking ways to reduce workload and remove unnecessary tasks. Staff training regularly focuses on wellbeing and includes student wellbeing training to help staff understand the link between mental health and behaviour so that they can use strategies within their own classroom to support students. For staff an active listening service has been set up – this is a group of staff who have volunteered to be available for their colleagues to talk to if they feel the need. Two members of staff have trained in First Aid for Mental Health.
