Mental Health & Wellbeing
The well-being of all members of our school community is of great importance to us at Longridge High School. This page of our website has a wealth of information and links to useful websites that can help, pupils, their families and staff alike to gain a better understanding of mental health issues and how to help yourself or others that may be struggling.
In school, we offer a range of support for pupils and staff can also access support too. For pupils who are struggling, we offer in-house support from our mentors, Head’s of Year, Mental Health Ambassador, Designated Mental Health Lead and School Counsellor. We have a staff well-being group that meets to consider ways of enhancing well-being amongst our staff and run events to encourage team building and togetherness amongst our staff. We also have close links with a number of professionals and agencies that we can refer into should we feel that more appropriate than our in-house support.
The student support team consists of: –
Mrs K Rogers – Designated Mental Health Lead
Mrs E Place – Mental Health Ambassador
Mrs R Jackson – Head of Year 7
Miss K Stemp – Head of Year 8
Mrs N Taylor – Head of Year 9
Miss K Webster – Head of Year 10
Mr C Mochan – Head of Year 11
Mrs R Edwardson-Pye – Family Liaison Support / Mentor
Ms L Murdock – Pastoral Liaison Officer / Mentor
Ms C Shorrock – Mentor
Mrs S Evans – Mentor
Mrs J Singh – School Counsellor
We also promote positive well-being by offering our pupils a wide variety of extra-curricular clubs and activities. Many of these link into our House System where pupils are grouped vertically across all year groups, allowing a sense of belonging and cohesion to be felt across the school. PSHE lessons look at a wide range of emotional, well-being and mental health issues, whilst also helping pupils to develop resilience and life skills for when they leave school. Assemblies bring year groups together for themed presentations sometimes delivered by guest speakers who specialize in particular areas.
Remember that whilst there are other agencies and charities that you can look to for help, we at school are here to continue to support you in any way that we can. Please do not hesitate to contact us on admin@lhs.lancs.sch.ukfor the attention of Mrs Rogers. Other useful points of contact for support are listed below and there is also a document on the page outlining a number of useful websites etc. where
School Nurse
The School Nurses provide a texting service called Chat Health. Pupils can make contact on 07507 330510.
The duty School Nurse can be contacted by parents on 0300 247 0040.
Text Messaging Services
While most doctors surgeries and counselling services are not operating on a face-to-face basis at the moment, there are text services available. The websites to access these services are as follows:
The Wellbeing and Mental Health Service: Free Helpline: 0800 915 4640 or text HELLO to 07860 022846
Kooth: www.kooth.com
Young Minds Crisis Messenger text service: text YM to 85258
Mobile Apps
Headspace is a personal guide to health and happiness. Designed to help you focus, breathe, stay calm, perform at your best, and get a better night’s rest through the life-changing skills of relaxation, meditation and mindfulness.
Happime a free non-profit app that helps to raise self-esteem, self-confidence and happiness levels in children young people and adults by teaching them about the power of thinking positively and how to choose a more helpful way of thinking.
Smiling Mind is a web and app-based program developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to people’s lives.
WellMind is a free NHS mental health and wellbeing app designed to help you with stress, anxiety and depression. The app includes advice, tips and tools to improve your mental health and boost your wellbeing.
MindShift uses strategies based on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help you learn to relax and be mindful, develop more effective ways of thinking, and use active steps to take charge of your anxiety.