Mental Health and wellbeing is one of the biggest growth areas of concern in schools and, of course, this has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the multiple lockdowns that we have now had to face. This is an area that we address in school through PSHE lessons and assemblies but also through a well-trained and well-informed pastoral team. At its most basic level, our advice to pupils often centres around consideration of the following key components:

• Sleep

• Nutrition

• Exercise

• Socialising

• Contributing

The lockdown has had, and is likely to continue to have, a detrimental impact on some or all of these areas for many people and so it is very important for pupils (and indeed all of us) to learn ways of managing and coping and hopefully even thriving. Resilience is frequently referred to in schools, although it is hard to define exactly. We tend to regard it as the ability to respond positively to change; and it can be developed. The internet is awash with mental health and wellbeing sites and advice, so the following list is by no means exhaustive. However, it is a good place to start looking for support and beginning to have healthy conversations about wellbeing at home.

The main avenue of support outside of school that we are signposting towards is Kooth. It has links to urgent support as well as general advice on mental wellbeing issues.

Many parents referred to sons lacking in motivation and struggling with the lack of social contact when Mr Caves sent out a survey during the first lockdown. One of our responses to this was to employ the services of Inner Drive who specialise in these issues and more. They delivered sessions to Year 11 in school on mindset and studying and they have numerous helpful resources available on their website. We would advocate having a look at the following:

• The Parent's Lockdown Six Pack - a collection of blog posts including advice on sleep, smartphones and stress.

• Mental Health Awareness for Parents - focussing on socialising, working from home and mood.

• Mental Health Awareness for Students - focussing on resilience and support, fear of missing out and managing perfectionism.

• Lockdown Learning for Pupils - Advice on managing screentime, sleep and learning.

The thing that we really like about the Inner Drive resources is that they are backed up in research and well evidenced. Each of the above resources offers further links to the research and other areas of interest.

Other sites and resources that we would recommend are as follows:

• MindEd for Families - an e-learning platform funded by the Department of Health to support parents and carers when they are concerned about a young person's mental health.

• Young Minds - this link to the parents' section has a lot of advice on supporting your child through the coronavirus pandemic.

• Charlie Waller Memorial Trust (CWMT) - This organisation was set up to help equip young people to look after their mental well being and spot signs of depression. The resource on self-harm is particularly good.

• Time to Change - this link is to a useful list of different types of mental health conditions and how to access support for each of them.