Our Deputy Head (Pastoral & Boarding), Mrs Rachel Whitton takes the lead in delivering the programme and individual feedback sessions, which we have been able to integrate seamlessly into our school day. She is supported by the PSHE team and Form Tutors, all of whom are highly skilled at delivering high quality wellbeing initiatives and have adapted their experience readily to the Flourishing at School programme.
We have worked with the founder of Flourishing at School, Mr Jason van Schie, for the past three years, bringing the programme to fruition. Jason has come over from Australia to spend time with us and has worked with our staff, pupils and parents, educating them with regards to the Flourishing at School programme. We initially discovered it while looking for a process to establish a baseline for mental health and emotional issues for new pupils. Our senior pastoral team has the strong foundations needed to deliver the programme.
When mental health is flourishing, you are better able to deal with problems or issues and develop resilience and grit.
Heathfield was the first school in both the UK and Europe to introduce Flourishing at School. We hope to lead the way in creating a Flourishing at School network for schools in the UK that adopt the programme, with Jason van Schie recently speaking to the HMC Wellbeing Committee on its success and ease of implementation at Heathfield.