I hope everyone had a good holiday weekend.\u00a0 Whether it was staff who were off on the Monday, pupils who had three days off or parents it is important we take time to relax.<\/p>\n
I know some of you took time on the Saturday to attend a very moving funeral service for Kathy Rohan Head Teacher at Broomhill School.\u00a0 We were both shocked and deeply saddened to learn that Kathy had died, it will have been a great comfort to her family to know that she was held in such high regard by her colleagues, by the families who she had supported and to the community.<\/p>\n
On the Wednesday staff from all the schools in the Harlaw area (Harlaw, Hanover, Ferryhill, Broomhill and Kaimhill) met together.\u00a0 We do a fair bit of joint work and on this occasion it was to focus on a mental health pilot we are working on.\u00a0 This work will see us helping pupils and families to cope with the many challenges of modern life.\u00a0 We have been gathering views of staff, pupils and parents to identify priorities and over the next few years we will try to help address these priorities.<\/p>\n
One of the areas people identified was social media and with this in mind we have sessions running in all the schools next month.\u00a0 During the week of these sessions there will also be an evening\u00a0session for parents at Kaimhill on Thursday 24th March (I think Hanover Street are organising something at the school for parents that week too).<\/p>\n
When we think of mental health the word ‘stress’ often springs to mind.\u00a0 Stress often carries very negative implications\u00a0but there are times when\u00a0stress is what brings out\u00a0the best in people.\u00a0 Below is an interesting talk on the subject “How to make stress your friend”.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0made me think about how I view stress and I hope it will help young people, and others,\u00a0to recognise how they\u00a0can use stress (eg in exams) in a more positive way.<\/p>\n