Thrive London – Whitefield School

Thrive LDN is a city-wide project to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Londoners. It is supported by the Mayor of London and led by the London Health Board partners.  
 
As part of the programme, Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England were commissioned to deliver Mental Health First Aid skills and knowledge courses as well as training people to become MHFA England Instructors (Youth) in schools and youth settings across London. As of March 2022, working in partnership with Thrive LDN, 190 courses (mostly Youth MHFA, Youth Champion and higher education courses) have been delivered, alongside 12 Adult MHFA courses. In total, c. 4000 people have been trained in mental health first aid skills and knowledge and 12 people have been trained as Youth MHFA instructors. 
 

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Funding for the programme ceased in March 2022 but to ensure Londoner’s have access to up to date, specific training, Thrive LDN funded a series of workshops throughout 2022 for those who have trained with MHFA England.
  
Whitefield School is a secondary school and sixth form located in the London Borough of Barnet. With over 1200 students from different cultural, ethnic and economic backgrounds it is a diverse and thriving place of learning often found in the top 1% and 2% of schools in the country for the value it adds to the expected progress of its students (i.e., they achieve more at Whitefield than they might at most other schools). 
 
Sarah Horton, Head of Drama, spoke to us about why Whitefield decided to apply for Thrive LDN funding and the benefits it has created as a result. 
 

“I was sent an email by our Deputy Head which detailed the offering from Thrive LDN and MHFA England. I was aware of MHFA England as had undertaken the Adult Mental Health First Aid course previously and found it incredibly useful. 
 
I’ve always been interested in mental health – not just my own but others as well and really wanted to pursue the opportunity. As a school, whilst we did have access to a counsellor, they were only available twice a week and any referrals would have to be teacher led. It was also quite common that referrals would end up with an outside agency and therefore were less personal for those involved. 
 
As a result of the funding, we were able to train 10 sixth form students as Youth Mental Health First Aiders as well as six teachers. I think what has been so successful about the programme is that it is peer led – the student MHFAiders often hold assemblies and produce posters and flyers to advertise the support they can offer. They have also recently set up an email account which students can use to get in touch with MHFAiders, or staff can refer them. As well as this, all our MHFAiders are supported by a teacher buddy so they never feel that they must deal with a difficult situation alone. Communication is key and I believe we have got that relationship just right. 
 
Through the Thrive LDN funding and MHFA England training, we are not only supporting youth mental health now, but also in the future. I really feel strongly that by starting young, we can show the next generation that it is ok to talk about their mental health and to watch out for friends’, family, and colleagues’ wellbeing.  

We are also giving our sixth form the tools that they may need to thrive in their adult life - helpful coping strategies and signposting to services that they might need once they have left school. 
 
I really feel that in the wake of the pandemic, it is important to help our young people build resilience and awareness and the training facilitated by MHFA England has allowed us to do this. I hope that we will be able to continue our relationship with MHFA England even though the Thrive LDN programme has now ended” 

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