FIRST AID FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS
WHAT WE OFFER
In order to break down the stigma surrounding mental health and to help our young people to recognise signs of mental illness and educate them about the support available, R World will:
- Fund one qualified teacher per school to do a First Aid for Mental Health Instructor Course (run by NUCO, duration: three days).
- Enable the qualified instructor to teach colleagues and students the Level 2 Award in First Aid for Mental Health (duration: one day).
- Provide assembly materials which can be delivered to students (including what R World is, why we set R World up, our aims, fundraising, etc.).
- Provide resourceswhich can be used throughout the year (PSHE/Citizenship lessons, whole-school materials).
- Provide bi-monthly communication and support throughout the first year of your project.
ELIGIBILITY
To be eligible for this funding, you must:
- Be a fully qualified teacher (QTS)
- Teach in a secondary school or sixth form
- Live in the UK
In addition, applicants need to:
- Be passionate about improving mental health within the school.
- Be approachable by students and colleagues.
- Listen and adapt to different students’ and colleagues’ needs.
WELLBEING AWARD FOR SCHOOLS
We recognise the importance of schools taking a whole school approach to wellbeing and mental health and would like to draw attention to the wellbeing award for schools. This award ‘focuses on changing the long-term culture of the whole school, using an evidence-based framework to drive change’.
POSSIBLE PROJECTS
In the application process, you are asked to provide a one-year action plan containing your aims, goals and objectives which you want to achieve within one-year of completing the instructor training. Below are possible ideas you could do in your school (taken from schools already being funded & our brainstorms as a charity):
- Mental Health Awareness Day
- Train volunteer student ambassadors in the senior sports teams
- Train colleagues from each academic or support department
- Run a half-day training course for majority of staff
- Sixth form students to become ambassadors within each year group
- Hold workshops at the end of the day/in school hours
OUR SCHOOLS
Simon Langton is our pilot school and has been brilliant at working with us to help us get a framework in place. Matt Tithecott, the Assistant Head Teacher (Mental Health and Wellbeing), was already a qualified First Aid for Mental Health training instructor and is now starting to train colleagues and students. He was impressed with how many students have expressed an interest in doing the training which goes to show that students are very aware of the importance of good mental health and are keen to help their friends.
Simon Langton School for Boys: Our pilot school has a total of 1,200 students and plans have been put into place for Matt, the qualified First Aid for Mental Health Instructor, to first of all teach first aid for mental health to volunteer student ambassadors in the senior sports teams. The reasons students gave for wanting to do the course was that they could help their sports teams and help any friends struggling. They would also gain a professional qualification: First Aid Awards (FAA) Level 2 in First Aid for Mental Health, which, although not being the main reason for volunteering, was attractive to the students as they could put it on their UCAS application or CVs. This enables the benefits of the qualification to reach even more people.
Matt expects to have 50 mental health first aiders trained this year (2021) and next year, these numbers should increase. He also plans to train a member of staff from each academic or support department who could then pass on their knowledge (half a day) to a further 16 senior students. Next year, he will be training different teachers and has planned to run the half day training course for the vast majority of staff so that they can recognise when students are struggling and signpost them to the qualified first aiders.