King Ethelbert School in Birchington has been recognised for supporting the wellbeing and mental health of its school community.
It has received The Wellbeing Award for Schools, which has been developed by the National Children’s Bureau and Optimus Education to recognise outstanding work being done to promote wellbeing and mental health within school communities across England.
King Ethelbert School began the award process in 2021 and has since developed various ways to help support both wellbeing and mental health.
This has included creating an action plan which then fed into a whole school strategy for improving the wellbeing of its students, staff and parents/carers; the introduction of ‘Student Wellbeing Ambassadors’ across the year groups in the school and the creation of Wellbeing Hubs which are inclusive of staff, students and parents.
Following a rigorous verification process and a one day inspection, the school received the news that it had been successful in achieving the award.
The Wellbeing Award in-school coordinator Charlie Barber said: “We are absolutely delighted as we first embarked on the award process well over a year ago.
“The process initially involved us looking at the policies and procedures we had in place and to see if we could refine and build upon them to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our whole school community.
“This included the introduction of our amazing three ‘Wellbeing Hubs’ which are run by teams of staff, students and parents/carers within the school.”
Headteacher Tom Sellen added: “We are passionate about promoting the wellbeing and mental health of the students, staff and families at King Ethelbert School. The process enabled us to evaluate areas in which we were already doing this well, but also identify where we needed to improve.
“Gaining the award has been a rigorous but thoroughly worthwhile experience and Charlie Barber and her team have done a fantastic job.”