St Mary’s College Formally launches Unique Wellbeing Hub For Senior School.
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00:00Proudly present, Cabaret!
00:05What good is sitting alone in your room?
00:09Come hear the music play
00:13Life is a cabaret, you'll jump
00:17Come to the cabaret
00:21Put down the tin, the book and the broom
00:25Yeah, now it's time for a holiday, oh
00:29Life is a cabaret, you'll jump
00:33My name is Deirdre Doherty and I am the Director of Schools and Partnerships for MD Education Foundation.
00:39Can you explain what the MD Education Foundation is?
00:43Yeah, MD Education Foundation is a charity which prioritises student wellbeing.
00:48So we provide salary funding to place a dedicated wellbeing professional within schools to support post-16 students.
00:56What's your thoughts on today's event?
01:02So today is absolutely a brilliant celebration, both for the MD Education Foundation and for St Mary's College.
01:10So as Brendan said earlier, it's just a wonderful collaboration in terms of that student-centred focus and prioritising student wellbeing, particularly for St Mary's.
01:20You know, we're looking to our young women of the future and hopefully we are enabling them to a brighter future in terms of their wellbeing.
01:28And of course you meet a lot of past people, so does that make it a little bit more special?
01:33I have to say, declaring my hand, yes it does make it a little bit more special.
01:37Even when the choir started singing earlier I could feel myself getting a little bit emotional.
01:41I'm a really proud past pupil of St Mary's, so for me to be able to come back to my old college, my old alma mater,
01:48to be able to do full circle is just an absolute privilege.
02:18My name is Brendan McGinn, I'm Principal of St Mary's College.
02:25What's your thoughts and feelings about today? How do you feel? It's only your fourth year, I don't know how many people are going to get to celebrate still in person I guess.
02:34Well, our launch today basically is to celebrate one full year with the Foundation.
02:39I feel proud, I feel very happy.
02:42I'm delighted that the senior girls have experienced one full year of mental health and wellbeing provision.
02:48We've learned a lot this year, and we have another two years left.
02:52I think next year, if anything, we'll get better and better and more effective.
02:56Are there moments when the girls don't seem to like it?
03:00Well I think, a couple of observations. One is, the girls first of all have a call in centre,
03:05so when they're stressed or need someone to chat with, they can call in.
03:10The first thing is the physical movement of girls into the hub.
03:14The second thing is that we have data to back the fact that girls are using the one-to-one counselling service,
03:21small group work and also bigger group work.
03:24So overall, it is making a big and important impact on the school.
03:40Chorus singing.
04:09I'm Professor Siobhan O'Neill, Mental Health Champion, Northern Ireland.
04:12Can you tell me a bit about how important a centre like this is, especially for young girls?
04:18Well, the rates of poor mental health in young girls, especially at the age of 16 and above, are really, really high.
04:24There's evidence that around 40% of girls of those teenage years could be struggling with poor mental health.
04:31So this wellbeing hub offers that safe place to explore feelings, emotions.
04:39It helps them manage their emotional responses.
04:44There's a whole wellbeing curriculum in this school as well that's delivered by the wellbeing practitioner.
04:50So it's really about that whole school approach, training young people how to manage their mental health
04:55and then giving them help and support when things start to go wrong.
05:00So it makes a massive difference to outcomes and there's evidence of that as well.
05:06What kind of pressures do young girls face in their teenage years and going through school?
05:13I believe you spoke about exam pressure. What are those pressures?
05:19Yeah, there's a lot of pressures on young people today.
05:21So exam pressure is part of it.
05:23In our society we emphasise GCSEs and A-Levels, you know, and there's more to life than that.
05:29But at that time it can feel like that's the only thing that matters.
05:33There's also relationships in families, relationships within peer groups and friendship groups and romantic relationships.
05:41And again, that can be a source of stress for young people that they need to manage those relationships too.
05:48And there's a whole world of social media and online activity.
05:52And also that can be detrimental to young people's mental health as well.
05:56So they need the skills to manage themselves, to manage their emotional responses to that
06:02and to cope with that stress and pressure so that they don't develop poor mental health
06:07and that they can get the most out of their educational experience.
06:10What's your feelings about today? How does it feel to see someone like this from the ground up?
06:15Oh, today is just complete joy, you know.
06:17You can see that the school has really embraced the whole school wellbeing approach and everybody's on board with this.
06:22And they recognise that this is fundamental to the success of education,
06:27that wellbeing is such a key part of allowing young people to succeed in a school setting.
06:33So they've embraced a whole school approach.
06:36There's an atmosphere of joy and positivity and also a recognition that our young people often are struggling with so many things nowadays
06:44and it's important that we give them the support and that the support's available at the school for them.
06:48That's lovely.
06:52And now it's up to Christian Brothers School.
06:56Here we go. Three, two, one, cut.
06:59CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
07:10What good's permitting some profit of two
07:15To wipe every smile away
07:20Life is a cabaret, oh chum
07:24It's only a cabaret, oh chum
07:28And I love a cabaret
07:33Cabaret, cabaret
07:43CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
07:54Thank you.