Staff from Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership’s (HSCP) South Health Improvement Team (HIT) have been supporting Gowanbank Primary School in South Glasgow, to create a new Mental Health and Wellbeing (MHWB) policy. The policy was launched at a celebration ceremony at the school on Friday, 30 September.

Coreen McKechnie, South HIT said: “Using a policy template developed by Glasgow’s Educational Psychology Services and some other supporting documents we developed, our staff supported teachers and parents to create the policy. We also helped them to successfully apply for funding from YoMo (Young Movers) – Glasgow's Youth Empowerment Charity, of up to £500 to buy equipment for the school playground to bring their policy to life. YoMo got their young people to score the applications and award the funding to the applicants that met the criteria.”  

Mrs Harris, a teacher at Gowanbank said: “A pupil had told me that he had nowhere to sit outside when he needed some time to relax and take some quiet time. A working group of pupils decided to use the YoMo money to purchase ‘buddy benches’ for the playground.  The benches will also be used for children wanting a space to make new friends. Older pupils of the school will also be given training and support to be ‘buddies’ so they are confident to talk to younger pupils and find out how they’re doing.”
 
Parents or guardians of the children that were involved in the working group came along to the celebration ceremony to unveil the new benches. The children sang songs, read poems and gave a presentation of their journey to bring their school's MHWB Policy to life. 
  
Staff from our partners LifeLink, Children 1st and Potential In Me came along to the event and set up stalls for the end of the school day where all parents could come and find out what wider support for mental health and wellbeing was available in the area.