Tegan Strudwick and Tia Westwood are pupils at Harrow Way community school in Andover they ask for your help with “Adding more mental health support and counselling into schools.”
This is a project Tegan and Tia are running this project for their citizenship class at Harrowway School.
Tegan’s mum, Sam told us, “They are looking to gain 100 signatures or more to support their petition, As a Mental Health First Aider myself and having completed my own qualification in Mental Health Awareness I felt this was such an important campaign and want to give her as much backing as possible.”
Tegan says,” In local schools, I feel there isn’t enough mental health support, such as counselling available. I have experienced this first hand as me and many others have struggled, but our mental health has been put aside instead of being a main priority. School is a major factor in why some children may suffer, so why isn’t mental health a more talked about and supported topic. I want teachers to have a better understanding on how to deal with a child’s mental health, and what that child needs in terms of support. Also, I want there to be more staff dedicated to helping students who are suffering in schools. As well as this, I want there to be safer places to go to in school for students to comfortably open up about how they are feeling with no fear of judgement. Sometimes students just need a place they can go to, to be alone or to be with others who are struggling just like them, or even to talk to someone they can trust. The awareness on mental health needs to be talked about more in schools so even if they aren’t the ones struggling themselves they know how someone else may feel or even ways they can be supportive of a family member or friend they know is struggling. I don’t want students of any age to have their mental health seen as a secondary priority because it’s not.”
To support their petition click here to add your signature
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