World Mental Health Day

Mon October 10, 2022

Edinburgh Steiner School will be marking World Mental Health Day with various activities on campus throughout the school day. Pupils and teachers are encouraged to wear yellow to raise awareness of mental health and show young people that how they feel matters.

OCTOBER 10th is Mental Health Awareness Day. There is considerably more awareness of this now than in the past and most young people know of it affecting sports personalities
and celebrities who have shared openly, as well as family, friends and classmates.

We do have a few advantages through being a Steiner Waldorf School when it comes to developing an environment which promotes mental as well as physical wellbeing and, at every stage, we aim to work as closely as possible with parents and the young people themselves.

• Healthy routines: Encouraged from the earliest years onwards, the importance of rhythmic routine, good nutrition and healthy sleep are promoted throughout.

• Gentle transitions: In the familiar surroundings of our campus, the transitions from Kindergarten to Lower and then Upper School are made as stress-free as possible, with familiar teachers only gradually being replaced as the curriculum develops and pupils mature.

• Therapeutic curriculum: Painting and Form Drawing, singing, music and Eurythmy, all support wellbeing, while Main Lessons engage pupils in interesting, age-appropriate topics through which literacy and numeracy, the sciences and humanities are taught and learned.

• PSHE lessons: As pupils reach the end of the Lower School, the gentle guidance given by the Class Teacher, often linked to a Main lesson theme, gives way to more direct
  discussion of topics relevant to the wellbeing of the adolescent and young person. At times, professional bodies are asked to give presentations directly to pupils, at
  others, their input is directed to CPD for teachers so that they can then better support their pupils with issues they are, or will be, facing.

• Additional Support: If pupils do develop anxieties, specialist Eurythmy sessions often restore the sense of balance and connectedness. For other pupils, the anxiety may
  come from a learning difficulty, so Pupil Support Teachers will help the child or young person, and their teachers, understand the strategies with which to support
  that. For yet others, the support needed might be counselling or regular check-ins with a Support Teacher who has time to listen. Promoting positive mental health is
  integral to each of these approaches.

• Quiet/safe spaces: A safe exit from a classroom and a supervised space to sit quietly, out of the classroom, if experiencing the approach of, or actual, anxiety/panic attack.

• Collaborating with other specialist professionals: Some young people require more support than others and, where other professionals are involved in their care and
  support, the Pupil Support Team aim to work with them as far as possible, communicating the advice to the rest of the teaching staff.
  The Pupil Support Team: Iain Campbell, Anne Fleming, Charlotte Willson, Marianna Bauko