Ormiston Forge awarded the Bronze 'School Mental Health Award'

Mental health and wellbeing have been a huge priority both as an Academy and a trust during recent years. So, we are proud to announce that Ormiston Forge Academy has recently been awarded the ‘School Mental Health Award’ – Bronze Status.

The Carnegie Mental Health Award is a program offered by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools, a partnership between Leeds Beckett University and Minds Ahead, that equips educational institutions with a framework to help them implement an evidence-based approach on how to develop a ‘whole-school strategy’ that can improve the mental health and wellbeing of its staff and students.

The award is broken down into 8 competencies, and after providing evidence of what is currently in place at the Academy, we were found to be in the embedding stage in every competency. The 8 competencies are as follows:

• Leadership and strategy
• Organisational structure and culture – staff
• Organisational structure and culture – pupils
• Support for staff
• Support for pupils
• Staff professional development and learning
• Working with parents and carers
• Working with external services

We are delighted with the recognition as it has highlighted the brilliant work we do with our students, staff and parents here at Ormiston Forge Academy. However, the Academy’s vison on mental health and wellbeing is constantly evolving and we are already looking into the future, and we see this bronze status as a stepping stone to where we want to be in regard to wellbeing. We will continue to use our current policies and strategies as a foundation for us to implement further initiatives that will hopefully improve the wellbeing of everybody involved at the Academy and the wider communities.