King Edward’s joins Teen Tips

King Edward’s has had a Pupil Wellbeing Committee since 2019 which is dedicated to improving the mental health and wellbeing of all pupils.  The Committee is lead by Deputy Head and Safeguarding led Mr David Corran, and supported by Head of Learning Support and SENCO Mrs Zoe Marsden, Deputy Head Academic Mrs Zeba Clarke, Medical Centre manager Ms Sandie Titheridge, School Counsellor Vanessa Edworthy and Deputy Safeguarding lead Mrs Caroline Shouksmith. The School approaches wellbeing with a holistic approach, focusing on both pastoral and academic settings when considering pupil wellbeing, and the Committee ensures that we provide support we are proud of. As part of this, they have recently started rolling out a new resource designed for pupils, parents and staff, called Teen Tips.

Teen Tips was set up by psychotherapist Alicia Drummond (author of Why Every Teenager Needs a Parrot) and aims to provide access to reliable information and materials to support teenagers in dealing with issues around wellbeing, mental health and development, as well as supporting healthy development and wellbeing within education. Teen Tips offers pupils a range of resources including a programme of webinars which cover a range of topics, such as mental health and well-being, sleep, self-image, school stuff, family, identity, moods, motivation, relationships, socialising, university, life after school, and setting up for exam success.

There are also separate hubs for parents, providing access to a wide range of support mechanisms, such as seminars, podcasts, lectures and forums which deal with many aspects of the emotional and developmental health of teenagers, a Teen Tips parenting course, weekly wellbeing podcasts and articles, and live Q&A sessions. A staff hub gives staff specific access to mental health and wellbeing CPD courses, PSHE lesson plans, a staff forum, and a Q&A library. Finally the ‘spark’ section helps pupils find positivity, inspiration, good news, careers resources and more.

Our aim with the Wellbeing Hub is not only to support pupils, but also to support parents and staff. By helping parents and staff to better understand some of the issues children and teenagers face and to aid in supporting our young people by promoting strong self-esteem and emotional resilience, we are supporting healthy development in teenagers so they can grow and thrive socially, emotionally and in education.

The Hub includes:

1. Information and advice on particular issues.
2. Answers – a bank of Q&As on a variety of topics.
3. Top Tips – films, blogs and tip sheets
4. ‘Spark’ – an area to find inspiration, positivity, good news and more.
5. Futures – career advice and ‘Inspiring Futures’ podcasts.
6. Help Zone – with link to specialist organisations for support.
7. 24/7 Support for parents.
8. Self help support where pupils can gain tools to manage their own mental health and wellbeing.
9. Aligned school/home messaging between parents and staff who also have access to the Wellbeing Hub.

Pupils, parents and staff can find the link to Teen Tips on the School’s Firefly.