Students from Corby Technical School arrived at school this morning to a brightly decorated building in a bid to raise awareness of Mental Health issues.

The Campaign week will consist of a range of activities for the whole school to get involved in. This includes four assemblies, a visit from the school nurse, school councillor and a spokesperson from the County’s Mental Health Campaign.

Teacher and organiser of the event, Mr Mark Bidwell said ‘Loads of charities have sent in gifts from coasters to badges. We have tea bags that say ‘How you feeling? Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a cuppa and someone to talk to?’ The whole idea is that we are encouraging our students to talk about Mental Health issues.’

‘One activity will include the children making pledge postcards which will go on the wall to make a display. This gives them an action plan if they are struggling.’

The school are currently seeking to become TaMHS (Targeted Mental Health in Schools) accredited.

Mr Bidwell said ‘It is all about raising awareness and letting children know how they can seek help. We want to be knowledgeable on the subject and be able to support and protect our students.’

‘Each term we have a different campaign, our last one was a Homophobic Language Awareness week, in partnership with Stonewall. The campaign received lots of positive feedback and had a big impact on the children who really enjoyed it. We hope this week will do the same. It’s part of our wider push for more diversity and to recognise our core British values of acceptance.’