A Scunthorpe-based junior school has been awarded Gold Status by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health Award.

This award, led by Carnegie School of Education and Minds Ahead CIC, ensures schools are using evidence-based approaches, aligned to the latest professional guidelines surrounding mental health.

The assessment report found that Outwood Junior Academy Brumby has been ‘excelling across all eight competencies’ used as a framework for the award, and that ‘the school places huge emphasis on the community being at the heart of everything they do.’

During its assessment, the Queensway-based academy was found to recognise and embrace giving children the opportunity to play a leading role in the academy’s mental health and wellbeing offer.

Children at OJA Brumby are given the opportunity to apply for roles such as Mental Health Ambassadors, a role in which they receive training on how to help them ‘understand how to hold a space effectively and manage boundaries.’ The report found that these ambassadors ‘play a pivotal role in developing provision and providing support for peers.’

Matthew Vickers, Principal at Outwood Junior Academy Brumby, said:

“We are so proud and delighted to have been awarded Gold Status. 

“At Outwood we believe in putting children first and this goes beyond just academically. We want to ensure the children we teach are supported to be good citizens who are assets to the community, as well as being supported to achieve academically. 

“To this aim, we want to make sure their mental health and wellbeing is looked after and thoroughly supported. We take immense pride in receiving this award and the hard work by our brilliant staff it recognises.”

Within the assessment report is glowing praise of the academy’s efforts to embed the mental health within the curriculum:

“...the academy has some innovative approaches to how MHWB is taught and developed through the PSHE and wider provision. Accountable Talk develops pupils’ ability to discuss emotions and feelings as well as their thinking around key issues such as sustainability and pollution; the teaching of thoughtful vocabulary empowers children to give voice to and shape their thinking, and to back up their opinions with evidence as well as express complex emotions.”

The award was established in 2017 by the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools – part of Leeds Beckett University – and social enterprise Minds Ahead.

The Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools aims to strengthen pupils’ mental health by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education system, improving students’ outcomes and life chances.

The award will last for three years, after which the academy can apply for re-assessment to maintain its current high-level of mental health and wellbeing support.