As part of the School's mental health awareness, renowned former Government Mental Health Tsar, Natasha Devon came to speak to the whole school community about mental health: its causes, how it is an issue for us all and possible solutions.

Natasha's advice was to take twenty minutes out of our day to do something we enjoyed that was relaxing and not part of any competition. She talked about how meditation, art or exercise could be helpful as it clears the mind but it had to suit us. Natasha spoke about the influence of advertising and the media on body image for boys and girls and the pressure to conform to their ideal is an unhealthy one. Natasha also demonstrated this by showing us several adverts, one of which was to promote Lynx using 6 of the world’s most highly paid models which had also been airbrushed. She also showed some perspective in that each culture has different beauty demands and that beauty paradigms keep changing to make us continue to spend money. Finally, Natasha finished with the senior pupils by telling them that suppressing emotions does not make them go away. Natasha provided a highly valuable afternoon of talks for which we are most grateful.

Alison Grant - Deputy Head