PUPILS at a leading North East school have become the first in the world to work with a renowned rugby charity tackling the stigma around mental health head-on.
Barnard Castle School students and staff spent the day in workshops with one of the founders of LooseHeadz, Dave Nicoll, and its head of delivery Heather Lewis.
The collaboration marks the beginning of an important relationship between Barnard Castle School and LooseHeadz, with both organisations exploring opportunities to pilot innovative mental health and wellbeing initiatives over the next 12 months.
The launch of the pilot coincided with Mental Health Awareness Week and programmes are intended to support conversations around the issue within sport and wider communities, with the ambition of making successful initiatives more widely available in the future.
Workshops covered mental health, kindness, sleep, resilience and the importance of creating supportive environments within sport and everyday life. The school pilot will provide training, wellbeing resources and support networks.
Heather told students: “An important part of mental health is knowing how you are feeling, to recognise what mental health is and how best to look after it.
“Creating environments where young people feel able to speak openly, support one another and prioritise their wellbeing is so important.”
LooseHeadz works with 1,400 rugby clubs in 36 countries but until now has never worked with a school. But after meeting with the school’s director of development Dionne Saville it agreed to explore opportunities.
The school’s welfare manager Will Chaloner said: “We are the first school in the world to have this pioneering mental health partnership with LooseHeadz and it is a real privilege.”
According to Barnard Castle School’s mental health lead Ed Midcalf the initiative reinforces Barney’s ongoing commitment to wellbeing, pastoral care and positive mental fitness across its community.
He said: “Sport plays an integral part in life at Barney, but before any result, the person comes first. Mental health and care in our community are at the heart of what we do.”
This shared approach to wellbeing is further strengthened by the involvement of former Northampton Saints and England scrum half Lee Dickson, Barnard Castle School’s outgoing master in charge of rugby, who also serves as a LooseHeadz ambassador.
Headmaster David Cresswell said: “At Barney we believe education is about developing the whole person. Supporting LooseHeadz reflects our commitment to ensuring that wellbeing sits alongside academic achievement and sporting success at the heart of school life.
“We are excited to be working together on a number of new initiatives over the coming year and to continue supporting the important work LooseHeadz does within the rugby community.”
Barnard Castle School will also be supporting LooseHeadz at a gala dinner later this year.The school has recently appointed former Leicester Tiger Joe Cain to lead rugby from September while Lee will retain his involvement as a consultant.
