Milne’s High set to make mental health a top priority in drive for attainment
Making sure students are in the right place mentally to achieve is one of the major priorities for the year ahead at Milne’s High School.
Mental health is taking pole position for the 10-strong senior pupil leadership team. This has seen the creation of two news roles - Kindness Ambassadors, in the shape of Phoebe Lindsay and Orla Younie - plus enhanced roles for school Captains Lauren Murray and Caitlin Parnaby.
They are joined on the team by two House Captains per House.
Milne’s High Rector Jemma Playfair said: “Our kindness ambassadors derived from when we did our pupil wellbeing survey.
“A lot of young people are facing issues with mental health. Some are struggling to attend school. There's just a lot of things that young people are getting quite anxious about that maybe back in my generation we maybe didn't get anxious about.
“Maybe we're maybe more overthinking about things. Social media has a big part to play with that. So our kindness ambassadors are going to do a lot of work to do with mental health.
“They also felt like some of our young people that have additional support needs don't get offered the same opportunities as young people in the mainstream setting. They're going to try and bridge the gap to include more inclusive activities for young people. So if we have a house competition for dodgeball, for example, if we've got somebody in a wheelchair, they might not be able to participate in that. The Kindness Ambassadors going to ensure that there's a range of activities that every young person in the school can compete in, so that they're representing their house
“Exam results are really, really important, but we're never going to attain if we're not in the right place.”
The work of the ambassadors will extend beyond the confines of Milne’s High itself.
Ms Playfair continued: “The Kindness Ambassadors are also going to do a wee bit of work with the three ASG primaries, looking at anxiety and looking at supporting and alleviating worries.
“A big thing is transition. A lot of young people, even in P7 already, they're saying, ‘What happens when we go to high school? What's happening here?’. The ambassadors are going to actually start working with P6s to do that wee bit of early intervention work to try and say, ‘This is what high school is like’ and try and minimise any anxieties.
“They're going to deliver lessons to the primaries, we felt that was really important. We're quite excited to see how that's going to shape over the next year. The two young people that we've got doing it are really quite special young individuals and they've had different experiences through school.
“They're the type of young people that other kids will listen to and they will actually take some advice from. Orla herself, her younger brother is in ASN. So she's got lived experience of maybe seeing her younger brother having to sit on the sidelines and not be able to participate because that activity is not suitable for him.
“We want this school to be a school where everybody can come and participate in everything, whether that be qualifications, whether that be a reading club at lunchtime, whether that be doing house football or something like that. We want it to be that everybody's got their place and that they fit in.
“We're quite excited about that because I think that will actually just bring a bigger sense of happiness and belonging to some of those young people that might not have had it before.
“Our two school captains are taking on more of a role of a social media presence. So we're going to be having newsletters that are going out written by our school captains and they're also going to do wee video updates. People will be able to see what learning and teaching looks like.”
The new vision for the school comes hot on the heels of a successful set of exam results over the summer which saw students challenging themselves to grab greater opportunities.
Ms Playfair explained: “Exam results were good in terms of widening opportunities for young people.
“Our S4s had the introduction of going from six national qualifications to seven. It was a pilot, there's two schools that are in that pilot.
“What that has afforded young people is that they'll have seven qualifications, but some of them have actually got eight. Some of that is because they've taken on an additional maths qualification and some of them have also got an additional modern languages qualification.
“Some pupils have got eight National fives and eight National 4s; I thought it was really good to celebrate that it's not just always about the kids that are getting the National 5s. For some young people, getting eight qualifications has actually given them a really good boost for their S5.
“Something else that I think has been really, really positive is our young people that were in S6, and have left have gone on to really good, positive and sustained destinations. We've had six young people going on to a Modern Apprenticeship, which is almost like going to university. They've done that a year early and a big part of that has been looking at what is in our area that interests young people.
“They did a lot of things looking at the Moray Growth Deal and things that are actually happening in Moray that they want to contribute towards.
“We've got people going on to an accountancy Modern Apprenticeship, we've got young people going on to engineering Modern Apprenticeships. Some people are going on to a catering one, actually living in the restaurant that they're working in. There's been real successes in young people using the exam results that they've got to actually go on to a positive and sustained destination.
“Moving forward, our new fourth year will also be doing the seven qualifications. We're hoping that we get a lot more young people getting seven qualifications rather than the six, because it means when they go into fifth year, they've got seven things to choose between rather than just the six. It gives them a wider range of opportunities.
“We've also got more young people engaging with working with other schools to do advanced hires. Sometimes because we're a smaller school, our numbers are a wee bit smaller, they're going to other schools to do the Advanced Highers.”
