Support for young people
Pastoral
Amesbury offers dedicated mental health and wellbeing provision for pupils, with a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader and dedicated indoor and outdoor spaces for children; the Wellbeing Hub and the Hub Garden.
Amesbury is a community leader in providing mental health and wellbeing support for young people; in 2023 a dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing development plan for the whole school community was launched, which was shared with numerous other schools in the area to build a culture of sharing best practice to help all our young people.
The strengthened focus on mental health and wellbeing is in response to demand – the post-pandemic era and highly pressured online and social media lifestyle that children has to contend with trickled into many aspects of life and the school day. Just a quick glance at the news and it was widely accepted that this was being felt more and more in classrooms across the whole of the UK. The Government has already stipulated that state schools should develop a Mental Health and Wellbeing role, releasing funds for training. Amesbury recognised that this should also be a focus for independent schools and took a leading and proactive approach to support pupils, staff, and also parents as much as possible. Amesbury became one of the first prep schools in the country to create this as a dedicated position with a stand-alone Wellbeing Hub space as well.
Mental Health and Wellbeing Team
Amesbury’s mental health and wellbeing team is lead by the school nursing team working alongside the Deputy Head Pastoral, Mr Armitage, and the school’s clinical psychologist, Dr Tom Smiley. In addition, the Head of PSHE, Life Skills and the Amesbury Award scheme, Mrs Page, continues her focus on wider character development, working to bring new topics and workshops to build resilience and self-care skills.
The role offers an additional layer of support to tutors, heads of sections and parents, with part of the focus being on addressing low-level wellbeing topics in a proactive manner, as well as creating time for more 1-2-1 or small group sessions in the school’s Wellbeing Hub with pupils who need a little extra support.
