Lancaster school pupils say it with flowers

The Our Lady’s Catholic College pupils gave roses out to passers-by as a ‘random act of kindness’.

Luisa Ordonez, intervention manager, said: “This is a simple gesture intended to brighten the day for people. There are lots of people on Valentine’s Day who may not have anyone to give them a gift so we hope this lifts emotions and raises some smiles.”

Some feedback received from the public was: “That’s made my day!”, “What a lovely idea” and one gentleman took two flowers saying, “I’m going to the dentist so I’m going to spread some kindness there!”

The children really enjoyed the act of giving and said it was a fabulous feeling to have made 50 people happier than they were before they saw them.

Thoughts and feelings are at the forefront of the minds of many in the school community.

Our Lady’s is currently working in collaboration with Lancashire Mind through the ‘whole school approach to mental health’.

This is a programme developed by Mind, the national mental health charity, which was designed by young people, parents, the wider school workforce and Lancashire Mind.

The programme supports schools to build resilience enabling them to improve mental health across the whole school community.

Over the past 12 months Our Lady’s Catholic College has delivered wellbeing and mental health training to staff, pupils and parents.

Recently a group of year 8 have completed resilience training workshops and 25 pupils, across all year groups, have volunteered to be ‘wellbeing ambassadors’; they are currently undergoing training, delivered by Lancashire Mind, following which they will provide peer support for children in school.

Headteacher Helen Seddon said: “Last year, the school was deeply affected by the tragic loss of one of our teachers, Anna Brindle. Her death was a shock to us all but I think it was a catalyst to us really attempting to do something to try and make a difference. We have since offered a variety of activities to support and improve the wellbeing of our staff and hold termly events to get the teams together.

“We are doing everything we can to raise awareness and end the stigma that often comes with anxiety, stress, depression, self-injury and suicide.

“Mental health wellbeing affects all of us, staff, students, parents and carers and we will continue to do our very best to support our whole school community however we can.

“Numbers of mental health issues are increasing, reportedly one in six children in every class in Lancashire are affected by poor mental health. These issues are not going to go away so we want the OLCC community to know how and where they can get the support they need.”

Lancashire Mind are offering specific sessions for parents and carers of pupils who may have difficulties. The workshops are for people supporting a young person with their mental health and offer tips and techniques to help when families are struggling.

These sessions are being held outside of school on Wednesday February 26 at 1-3pm or 5-7pm at Fathers House, Skerton, LA1 2AP. The sessions are free.

If you would like any further information about the sessions contact Jess Hale at [email protected].