This year has seen the introduction and development of an amazing group of year 10 students who are our Mental Health Ambassadors. As our community, along with the rest of the world settles into the 'new normal' after Covid restrictions and lockdowns, having a wide range of support available for our young people has become more important than ever.   

To raise awareness and some coping strategies, the ambassadors led the whole school assemblies during Mental Health Awareness week, 9th-15th May.

As year 10's transition into year 11, the mental health team have already started to recruit current year 9's with 15 already having applied.  Their training starts next term so that they are ready to take over the role in September.

If you or your child have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the school and ask to speak to your Head of Year, or myself 

Mrs Willians SENDCo

The mental health Ambassadors have now been running for 3 years from their initial inception by Morgan E. Mental health is very important to the students of Henley Bank High School.

After applying in Year 9 Sara R, was chosen as our new Head of the Mental Health Ambassadors team. Sara R has explained why she wanted to do the role;

The reason I joined the Mental Health Ambassadors is that as a person who has experienced bullying in the past, I felt like I couldn't just not talk about it as it would make me feel so much worse, so I sought out advice and help from the wonderful teachers and SEND Team at HBHS. These people and experiences have changed my views on how schools help out with situations like bullying. It showed me that staff will listen, and that it will work out in a positive light eventually. This brings me to my main reason of joining the MHA team: I would like to make mental health more accessible to everyone and to make it clear that staff will deal with any issues you might be experiencing, and to make it clear that they will support you every step of the way even if it takes a period of time to sort it all out. You can find me in the mornings in the PLC Common Room during Tutor Time Reading or in the quad and art classrooms at lunchtime if you would like to have a chat about something that has been bothering you.

Sara is part of a team of Year 10’s that are all determined to make Mental Health something that is not hidden or anything to be scared of. Meet the rest of the team;

I’m Alex and I joined the Mental Health Ambassadors team because I struggled with insecurities about my body. Through this experience, I have learnt to not listen to these thoughts and to just be happy.

I’m Dylan, I am going to be one of the Mental Health Ambassadors for 23-24. I will be there to support you when you need it.

I’m Ruby, I am part of the Mental Health Ambassadors. I wanted to join because I wanted to help others because I know how it feels to join a bigger school and how stressful leaving primary school cane be and I wanted to help support others through this experience.

I’m Lucie and I wanted to join the team as I’ve struggled since primary school. Lockdown didn’t help with my mental health and I found it really hard to go back to school. Since I’ve come back to Henley Bank it helped a lot with me not being scared to go to school. I just want to help people with how they feel and that they should not be scared to talk about their mental health and that it is ok not to feel ok.

This year we will run assemblies and have plans to raise some money for Mental Health Charities and to raise awareness of Mental Health in Schools. Our goal is to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues by empowering students to speak openly about mental health.

Below are some of our assemblies presented by our Mental Health Ambassadors