Mental Health First Aid training for students at Bright Futures

Students from Bright Futures Educational Trust attended an official Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training session organised by Lisa Fathers and George Thomas part of the Trust Central Team.  The training covers awareness of our student mental health and wellbeing, how to support themselves and others, as well as basic awareness around anxiety, stress and self-harm.

Bright Futures Educational Trust is wholly committed to work relating to deep mental health and wellbeing and having them firmly embedded within our Trust. This is further evidenced through our involvement with Well Schools and the fact that we have our own team of Educational Psychologists who are based at Melland High School and form part of the Educational Psychology and Specialist Outreach (EPSO) Team.

We have trained many staff in MHFA and have a number of Mental Health Ambassadors and Sports Leaders amongst our students, so this felt like a natural step in ensuring we maintain a consistent language and approach for wellbeing. Certainly now, as we have lived through this Covid19 pandemic students seem to have a wider interest in both mental health and wellbeing, not only of themselves but also of those around them.

Lisa Fathers, Director of Development, Partnerships and Teaching School Hubs, commented: “At Bright Futures we make mental health and wellbeing sit at the core of what we do and why we do it. There’s nothing more important than the health and wellbeing of children and young people so if we can start by looking after ourselves we are much more likely to enjoy school.

“For children and young people to both be aware of and recognise triggers for their own mental health and that of their peers presents another level of support at a young age. We are delighted to be able to offer this training to students and for them to be so heavily involved in the training offer. Two of our students have expressed a wish to continue on this path at college and move into working in this field in the future.”

Feedback from students following the Phase 1 initial training was very positive and Bright Futures looks forward to growing the project even further which we feel aligns nicely with the Greater Manchester-wide #BeeWell programme which launches in the autumn to address challenges facing young people in the post-Covid world which will be offered to all secondary schools. Find out more here: Greater Manchester-wide #BeeWell to launch in autumn after £1.2m funding raised