Etone College and Mental Health

At Etone College this term we have explored mental health during Mental Health Week 2021. The aim of this week is to consider the importance of positive mental health and consider how we can look after it.

How does School help with Mental Health?  

School helps with mental health in many different ways. You have the ability to interact with friends, something that has not been taken for granted over the past year. You can access support from your teachers and out House system if you feel you need it. In addition to this learning enriches your mind and that in itself is important in keeping positive mental health.

During this week pupils have had an assembly; making them aware of what mental health is, showing examples to pupils of how it can be effected, the different types of mental illness and ways to overcome it.

In a time where there is so much anxiety related to the global situation it is more important than ever to take good care of your mental health.

Peer Education Project

The Mental Health Foundation is a group dedicated to preventing mental illness and promote positive wellbeing. Working with them, this helps to build our curriculum for mental health awareness. They are currently providing a program called the PEP program (Peer Education Project). The mission of this program is to help people understand, protect and sustain their mental health. The Peer Education Project aims to give young people the skills and knowledge they need to safeguard their mental health. This project teaches the ways to look after our mental health and wellbeing and where to seek help when needed.

This week our theme is “Healthy Lifestyles” and it has also been Stress Awareness month during April.

The Theme of the week at Etone is currently Healthy Lifestyles.  As a part of this please find below practical advice and tips when dealing with stress.  The information is from the national stress awareness initiative as this month is national Stress Awareness month which we want to sign post as a part of our Healthy Lifestyles theme. 

The UK’s Fastest-Growing Homework & Revision Platform

5,500,000 students use Seneca to boost their grades at school and at home. We have interactive courses written by senior examiners for ages 8-18. Our free parent accounts let you monitor your child’s progress on these courses whenever you like!

Proven to help your child learn 2x faster

Seneca’s smart learning algorithms are academically proven to help your child remember topics 2x faster than traditional methods. If your child gets a question wrong, we’ll show them the content again in a different format and at the perfect moment. We’ve also hand-selected the best GIFs and memes on the internet so revision makes your child laugh instead of stressed.

Easy engagement with your child’s learning

Parental engagement has a significant positive effect on child learning outcomes. Supporting your child with their studies begins with knowing how they’re doing. We’ve put together an easy-to-use monitoring platform that puts your child’s learning data at your fingertips. It’s free and works on all devices!

To sign-up visit: https://app.senecalearning.com/sign-up and once you have signed up, connect your account to your child’s account. This link will take you do a video demonstration: https://senecalearning.com/en-GB/blog/webinar-for-parents-getting-the-most-out-of-seneca/

On Tuesday, 9 February 2021, we will celebrate the 18th edition of Safer Internet Day with actions taking place right across the globe. With a theme once again of “Together for a better internet”, the day calls upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.

Read on to find out more about practical ways in which you can get involved in the celebrations. Whether you are a young person, a parent or carer, a teacher or an educator, a policy maker, or whether you represent an organisation or industry, everyone has a role to play in creating and maintaining a better online world.

And, noting the global reach of the Safer Internet Day campaign, on this site you’ll also be able to discover more about the planned actions of European Safer Internet Centres, global Safer Internet Day Committees and a range of organisational and industry supporters – we’re progressively updating profiles for the 2021 campaign, so please check back often for the latest updates.

https://www.saferinternetday.org/resources

Students are challenged to research and choose an NHS career that interests them. Once chosen, they create materials to promote it, starting with a job description to capture key responsibilities, along with any qualifications, skills and experience needed.

This learning is then used to create a fun and lively job advert to appeal to their peers. Deadline – 30th April 2021 – students need to submit entries to careers@etonecollege.co.uk  

The link to the competition can be found here: NHS careers and jobs schools competition for KS3 (stepintothenhs.nhs.uk)

Year 11: Careers interviews have moved onto Teams you may receive an invite from Amanda Joseph. Please accept this and let your teacher know via email why you have missed their lesson.

Year 10: Think Higher sessions have moved onto Teams. Please expect an invite from Jamie Ormes if you are a member of Think Higher.

Ensure you join your lesson then at your appointment time. You can click on your calendar and join your appointment. This will place your lesson on hold and you can click resume and rejoin your lesson when the appointment is finished

Willmott Dixon are offering a free online WEXP opportunity to Years 10 and 11. Please follow the link below for more details and apply ASAP if you are interested. In the current climate, virtual work experience is extremely important and we encourage students to grasp such opportunities

Etone Sixth Form – Applications for our sixth form next year are still open. Please contact Crussell@etonecollge.co.uk or Lpetch@etonecollege.co.uk for more information. Application forms can also be accessed via the sixth form section of our website. www.etonecollege.co.uk/sixth-form/

Our in school reward systems are still running during the lockdown period we encourage all pupils to earn rewards during Teams lessons.

Feedback from the careers interview process has been collected this week.

All students said the interviews had been a good experience. Some are yet to apply for places on courses or jobs on leaving school so I wish to encourage everybody to discuss this with students and start to ensure applications are completed.

Careers Competition Winners – these pupils have each earned 5 House points each. Well done!

Overall Winner: S.Darleston

• A.Isak 7P1
• J.Gavin 7G1
• O.Gurung 7P1
• P.Carmichael 8G1
• P.Holdaway 8D1
• C.Grimbley 8C1
• J.North 9G1
• D.Burkett 9P1

Create House competition for students to showcase their creativity and skills in Art and design which was to design a Christmas card that represented our school and featured the Etone College logo. There were some excellent entries received. These designs were then sent out as an electronic Christmas card to contacts of the school.

The winners were:

• H.Kimberley – Year 7
• G.Knight – Year 7
• A.Barriga – Year 8
• E.Clay – Year 9

Huge congratulations to our winners who have all won a Christmas themed prize!

Year 7 have had an extremely exciting start to their English lessons at Etone College. After completing a two-week introduction to the dystopian genre, we have started to study the novel “Thief!” by Malorie Blackman. This book tells the story of Lydia, a girl who moves to a new school and is accused of stealing the Sports Cup. As a result, Lydia’s whole world is turned upside-down. Students have particularly enjoyed the range of expressions and emotions within the text. They have also found the idea of a child starting at a new school to be relatable, which helps to engage them with the text.

The students have been using ideas from “Thief!” to craft their own pieces of writing, ranging from diary entries to re-writing parts of the story.

The students are also taking their first steps towards becoming literary detectives, analysing Blackman’s use of language and how this creates certain ideas and feelings for the reader. Everyone is showing fantastic commitment and creating some superb pieces of independent work.

Away from “Thief!”, students have also been having weekly “library” lessons. While it is not always possible for these to take place in the school library, we still have an hour each week where students complete spelling tests and share the reading of the class book (Holes or The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). Students have told their teachers that they really appreciate the opportunity to read “for fun”.

Tuesday 14 July from 10am to 4pm

Big Bang Digital 2020 – science, engineering and Covid-19 is a free online event for young people 11+ to attend short, inspiring sessions looking at all aspects of STEM in a pandemic.

It’s the perfect opportunity for students to see STEM careers in action, hear inspiring stories from incredible people (including a Nobel Prize winner), ask questions in live Q&A sessions, add their voice to online polls and complete activities throughout the day. 

Big Bang Digital can be included as part of home learning or streamed in school and is a secure environment with safeguarding measures in place. 

Line-up at a glance:

• TV & Radio Science Presenter, Podcaster & YouTuber Greg Foot will be hosting live
• Meet NHS frontline staff, join the race to find a vaccine and ask the experts your coronavirus questions.
• Hear from people designing PPE, ventilators and a social distancing lanyard
• Find out how the NHS Nightingale hospitals were built so quickly
• Meet the teams keeping things moving, water in the taps and food in the shops
• Explore lockdown cyber security and staying safe online
• Pay tribute to key workers with a rainbow science show with Gastronaut Stefan Gates

To check out the full programme visit: www.digitalbigbang.co.uk

This term house sport took on a new form when it went virtual! Pupils were asked to support their house by posting photos of their workouts on Twitter and adding the hashtag for their house. Lots of pupils and staff got involved with house sport and showed great support for their houses. Well done to everyone.

The winning house was DRAGON!

A huge well done to everybody who got involved!