Saturday 4 February saw a large contingent of our parent community gathered in the Quarry Theatre to attend the second annual Parent Partnerships Wellbeing Conference, timed to mark the start of Children’s Mental Health Week. Two of our Lower Sixth boys Zach Wasterfall and Charlie Lawrence launched the conference, talking eloquently about what pastoral support and mental health meant to them. Both boys are members of the Pupil Citizenship Group that links into the Parent Partnerships Programme, to ensure learnings are shared and parents and staff work are able to together to support the boys.
Parents then made their way to their selected breakout sessions, which included a talk from Mr Richard Denton (Education and Diversion Coordinator with Bedfordshire Police) who spoke very engagingly about “Keeping teenagers safe in the digital world”. Miss Tina Thompson (Academic Support Teacher/PGCE SEND/Specialist Assessor) gave a presentation on “Neurodiversity and learning differences: How you can support your child” and Mr Max Roger (Head of Athletic Development) gave a talk entitled “Nutrition, Sleep and Exercise: the three pillars supporting pupils’ sport and academic performance”. Finally, Mrs Fiona Whiteman (Parent Partnership Lead and Housemaster) gave a very popular repeat of last year’s helpful talk, with current parent and criminal defence solicitor Miss Harriett Mather, on “Parties, Alcohol and Drugs – guidance and legal matters”.
This year’s keynote speech was from Mr Dick Moore, entitled “Adolescence is a war. No-one gets out unscathed! How we cope with them, and how they cope with us”. Dick is an ardent advocate for mental health in children and teens, and spoke with passion and empathy, engaging everyone from his first word. He gave advice and strategies for helping teenagers through what is very often a challenging and troublesome time for many and spoke with experience about signs and symptoms of common mental health disorders to look out for. Mrs Fiona Whiteman, our Parent Partnership Lead said “Dick’s words are powerful and important for all of us as parents, but he delivers them with such warmth and understanding that it’s nothing but a pleasure to listen to him. He engages us on the most traumatic and difficult of topics but leaves us all feeling empowered and optimistic about helping our young people as they move forward in the world. We are extremely grateful to him for coming to speak to our parents and many of our staff today.”
The conference concluded with a panel Q&A session, giving parents the opportunity to learn more from all the speakers making use of an app that permitted confidential questioning before lunch and a further opportunity to discuss the morning’s learnings.
Feedback from those attending was extremely positive with parents commenting, “We thought the morning was enormously beneficial” and “The talk from Dick Moore really stuck a chord and gave us a fresh perspective on how our son’s brain is changing and techniques to engage with him during the tough stuff” as well as “I just wanted to send a quick note to say thank you for organising the parent’s conference. I chose the online safety talk and learnt SO much. The internet is a complete minefield…… The main speaker Dick was also amazing, so interesting to learn from his experiences. A great help as we navigate through the teenage years.”
Materials are available for those unable to attend. Please do email the communications team if you would like to access recordings.