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Stamping out Stigma at St. Gregory’s!

Blog, News | No Comments 18th January 2012

On 11 January the ‘Sticks and Stones’ team paid a visit to St Gregory’s Catholic High School, Warrington and ran a series of taster sessions for year 8 and year 9 pupils around mental ill-health and learning disabilities.

St Gregory’s, which was the first school in Warrington to become an official Corporate Partner of the campaign, will be using the ‘Sticks and Stones’ Key Stage 3 & 4 schools pack in their PSHE lessons over the coming months to help educate their pupils about the stigma surrounding mental ill-health and learning disabilities.

The interactive workshops saw pupils taking part in a number of activities, including a quiz, where pupils worked in small teams to answer a number of questions and identify a series of famous faces who all have a connection with mental ill-health or learning disabilities.

At the end of the sessions, the children were asked to each ‘throw away’ one stigmatising word that is used to describe people with mental ill-health or learning disabilities. They were asked to write the word on a piece of paper and then throw it into a waste bin at the front of the classroom, explaining their classmates why they had chosen that word. By throwing the stigmatising words into the bin, the children were making a physical gesture and promising not to use the word again in the future.

These workshops will form a basis for the school’s upcoming PSHE lessons, which will all be based around the ‘Sticks and Stones’ campaign. In March the ‘Sticks and Stones’ team will be taking the purpose-built Diary room into the school, giving the pupils a chance to talk about how the lessons have affected their views of mental ill-health and learning disabilities, and what they are going to do differently as a result.

Head of Key Stage 3 PSHE, Elisabeth Whelan said:

 “The pupils all responded really positively to the workshops and were keen to get involved with the discussions around mental ill-health and learning disabilities. I was amazed by the honesty of the pupils and their eagerness to learn more about the topic.”

 “They were surprised to discover that one in ten children between the ages of 0 and 15 has a diagnosable mental illness, the need to educate others that people with mental ill-health should not be bullied or ridiculed by their peers and the importance that if they or anyone they know ever experiences mental distress, they should not be afraid or ashamed to seek help for it.”

To find out more about how the ‘Sticks and Stones’ campaign can help to Stamp out Stigma in your school, e-mail sophie.ellis@5bp.nhs.uk or click here to download our Key Stage 1 & 2 or Key Stage 3 & 4 schools resources

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