Schools in Jesmond have been marking Mental Health Awareness Week which has particular significance this year amid concerns about the long-term effect of the pandemic on pupils.

Newcastle School for Boys, Dame Allan’s, and Newcastle High School for Girls all say they are considering long-term strategies that will provide extra support, and have been using Mental Health Awareness Week to start the conversation with children, parents and staff.

Head of Newcastle High School for Girls (NHSG) Michael Tippett says his staff are alert to pupils’ increased support needs. “We already had a school nurse and a school counsellor on site, and we deliver lots of regular mental health awareness sessions and events,” Tippett told JesmondLocal. “But now more than anything, we need to ensure that our pupils know that it’s OK to talk to us, to their parents, or to anyone if they are struggling.”

This week NHSG has been be holding assemblies and talks on a host of mental health issues, including sexual harassment, eating disorders, anxiety and depression, the perils of perfectionism, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Staff, pupils and alumni have also been publishing articles on the topic of mental health on the school’s website.

Dame Allan’s school has recently set up a training programme for the school’s pastoral staff on issues relating to Covid trauma and PTSD. Natalie Shaw, head of pastoral care at the school, told JesmondLocal: “Students have had family members who have been very poorly, some of them may have died, or lost their jobs – or they may have just been incredibly isolated for a long time. We’re concerned about these issues because they are ongoing, and don’t go away once restrictions start easing.”

Since students returned to school in March, they have been readapting to being in a classroom with their peers again. Shaw says she believes the support available at Dame Allan’s has been of benefit to the pupils. “We are extraordinarily lucky, because being an independent school, we can make decisions that best suit our community. I do think it would be wonderful if the service that we provide could be available to all pupils in every school, and I would argue that it should be.”

Kim Cartmell, member of the support for learning staff team at Newcastle School for Boys (NSB), told JesmondLocal: “We want to make sure that mental wellbeing is embedded into the ethos of school life. We take a holistic approach to education, which encompasses mental and physical health alongside academic development.

“But we definitely need to increase awareness around mental health after Covid, because there could be issues there in the future. As a staff team, we are vigilant for any changes that might have occurred.”

The government announced plans on Monday to invest £17 million to improve mental health support in schools and colleges across the U.K. The initiative will include training for thousands of senior mental health leads, and a pool of helpful resources. The government says this part of its “commitment to making mental health and wellbeing a central part of education recovery work”.