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St Swithun’s retains gold standard Mental Health Award |
St Swithun’s School has been nationally recognised for its exceptional pastoral care after being reaccredited at gold standard for the School Mental Health Award, delivered by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools.
The school retained gold standard, the highest level, for its outstanding mental health and wellbeing provision. The assessment listed the school as excelling in all seven assessed areas including support for pupils, organisational structure and culture, and working with parents and carers. The report praised the school for the introduction of The Engagement Platform (TEP), where students have achieved exceptionally strong outcomes, placing the school within the top 5% nationally for inclusion, enjoyment, effort and pupil recommendation. 
The assessors also stated that mental health and wellbeing are deeply embedded within the students’ experiences at St Swithun’s. They praised the review and rewrite of the Positive Education curriculum which strengthened learning across six wellbeing domains and is complemented by an increased focus on mental health and wellbeing within PSHE, particularly in the sixth form.
The High Performance Learning values and attributes adopted by St Swithun’s include confidence, resilience, empathy, collaboration and concern for society. The BeeWell outcomes, successfully benchmarking pupil wellbeing across more than 80 schools, provide particularly strong validation of the culture experienced by students, with relationships with staff, friendships, self-esteem and psychological wellbeing amongst the school’s strongest areas.
“We are thrilled to have retained our gold standard accreditation. At St Swithun’s we help our students build resilience, integrity and self-belief, all while supporting them as they try new things and navigate their teenage years. This is only possible thanks to a co-ordinated and effective support and challenge system alongside a commitment to pupil safety with a strong safeguarding culture.”
Graham Yates, deputy head pastoral at St Swithun’s.
The award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead. The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances. 
Rachel C. Boyle, Dean of Leeds Beckett’s Carnegie School of Education, said: “The achievement of the Mental Health award is a demonstration of the school's significant commitment to improving children's and staff’s mental health and wellbeing. It is also a commitment to developing practices in school that seek to improve awareness and expertise in creating safe and secure learning environments in which all children can truly fulfil their potential. This award is one that all staff can be truly proud of”.
Nationally, more than 1400 schools have signed up to take part in the mental health award.
Dean Johnstone, founder and CEO of Minds Ahead said: “This award shines a light on the excellent work schools are doing to promote mental health for their community of children and adults.
“It is thrilling and humbling to learn about St Swithun’s and the many other schools engaged in the quality award process. I’d like to offer my congratulations on this deserved recognition.”