Following training, a group of Year 10 students recently took on the role of Peer Educators for year 7, which saw them deliver six lessons focusing on mental health and wellbeing as part of The Peer Education Project, a programme devised by The Mental Health Foundation. This secondary school-based educational programme aims to give young people the skills and knowledge they need to safeguard their mental health and that of their peers.
The programme supports the Five Ways to Wellbeing framework adopted by the federation which promotes and encourages a healthy mindset for students and staff. It is the first time that the federation has taken part in the programme and it was a big success with peer educators and year 7 students gaining knowledge of how to protect and improve their mental health in order to lead fulfilling and happy lives.
Year 10 Peer Educators Keira and Lacey-May gave us an overview of the project and told us what they had learnt from it. “Last year, in June, a selection of students volunteered in a project to help younger students with their mental health, this was the Mental Health Peer Educator Project. We did training at The Island VI Form with Carisbrooke College, from this training we planned out the lessons we would present to our given year 7 tutor groups. This project not only allowed us to help students, it also allowed us to view learning from a teacher’s perspective. Through this experience we learnt a lot about mental health ourselves and are extremely grateful to have the opportunity to engage with a class about such an important topic in our lives”.
We are already looking ahead to next year and are asking current year 9 students to consider becoming Peer Educators for our new year 7’s. All interested students should see Mrs Guy.
Our Peer Educators are pictured below with the certificates that they received for completing their training and undertaking the role of Mental Health Peer Educators for year 7.
