School Award for Resilience and Emotional Wellbeing

St Anthony’s School in Thanet was recently awarded the Kent School Award for Resilience and Emotional Wellbeing. This Award has been developed by HeadStart Kent, which is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund. The Award recognises and celebrates everything schools do to support young people’s emotional wellbeing through a whole school approach.

Achieving the Award is a way of endorsing the standard of work that has been carried out in schools to meet the guidance provided by the Public Health England report ‘Promoting children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing – a whole school and college approach’.

By using the Resilience Toolkit and online resources, schools have assessed their approach to emotional wellbeing and resilience in their settings and have identified and actioned change to include the whole school community. They have then reviewed the impact that has been made as a result of their whole school activity.

St Anthony’s, in Margate, was the fourth school to achieve the award after Homewood School in Tenterden, Westlands School in Sittingbourne and St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School in Gravesend, which all received their awards last year.

Mrs Abi Cranson, assistant head teacher at St Anthony’s, said: “We are so happy to receive this award. St Anthony’s staff and pupils work really hard supporting each other and making the school a safe and happy place to be. HeadStart has had a huge impact on St Anthony’s and supported us on our journey to be a resilient school. Staff, pupils, parents and families have all benefited from training, events and activities that support good wellbeing and improve mental health.”

Sue Chandler, Kent County Council’s Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services, said: “It’s really good to recognise the fantastic work our schools are doing with HeadStart to improve children’s resilience and make sure the good mental health of our children is a priority.”

The Resilience Toolkit, which guides schools through assessing their approach to resilience and wellbeing using the whole school approach principles, is freely available to schools. It can be found on the online Kent Resilience Hub, which will continue to host tools, resources and best practice for Kent, including targeted resources for individual work with students.

You are able to keep up to date with our articles, news and publications by following us on our social media channels below: