Northampton school transforming mental health support for students to combat national crisis

The leader of a Northampton school has invested in mental health training for more than 40 teaching staff, in an attempt to build an “army of fully trained coaches” to support the school community.

Since joining The Duston School in 2017, Sam Strickland has placed huge emphasis on mental health and wellbeing, bringing in a team of counsellors in his first few months and spearheading plans to create a positive impact for students and staff.

Sam said: “I’ve worked in education across the county for many years and witnessed first hand the lack of external mental health support available for those most at risk – including terrible waiting lists and a lack of referral pathways.

“This isn’t just a local issue though – national statistics show demand for support is higher than ever and, with half of all mental health disorders starting before the age of 14, schools have a huge role to play.”

Bringing in the school’s own counsellors was just the beginning of developing their own service, but the next phase was building a ‘Positive Impact Centre’.

This separate facility is on site, and is a dedicated base for their counsellors, mental health nurses, and higher level teaching assistants (HLTAs) with training in social and emotional acts of learning (SEAL).

“This latest training is a huge part of our ongoing plans to embed mental health and wellbeing support into our whole school approach,” said Sam.

There are 40 members of staff at The Duston School undertaking an eight module training programme, delivered by Educator’s Coaching Academy (ECA) – founded by a former Northamptonshire teacher and international coach and speaker, Sam Moinet.

The course aims to equip staff with the tools and confidence to improve student mental health, whilst also supporting their own wellbeing in the process.

Sam Moinet said: “Having so many teachers undertaking this programme is going to make a massive difference to the lives of so many, and has the power to revolutionise the culture at The Duston School.

“I wish there were more forward thinking principals like Sam Strickland.”

The feedback from staff undertaking the training so far has been “really positive”.

Geography teacher Mark Bidwell said: “I’m really excited that so many staff are going to be equipped with the skills to actively listen to students and to give them space – but also the forum to discover results and answers for themselves.”

The principal hopes the training will result in increased confidence in how their teachers work with students, as well as supporting both their own and their colleagues’ wellbeing too.

With ambitious plans to “build an army of fully trained coaches” to have a positive impact on the whole school community and continue building on The Duston School’s ‘Positive Impact Centre’, Sam hopes he is leading the way in combating the mental health crisis among students in the town.