24/06/2026
Our Journey Towards Mental Health and Wellbeing
The COVID-19 pandemic changed many things for many people, but one of the most significant changes it brought about was a heightened awareness of the importance of mental health — for all of us. As a school community, we became very aware of the need to address mental health, both for our pupils and for our teachers. We knew that if we were going to make a real difference, we needed to research how to best achieve this, be honest about where we stood, and commit to a long-term journey of genuine improvement.
This article is an account of that journey. We share it not to present ourselves as having all the answers, but in the spirit of outreach and shared practice — in the hope that our experience may support other schools, contribute to wider policy thinking, and perhaps encourage others who are at the beginning of a similar path.
Starting with the Foundations
We started with small but significant things. One of the first and most meaningful decisions we made was to hire a full-time school counsellor as a permanent member of staff. This sent a clear message to our entire community: mental health is not an afterthought — it is central to who we are as a school.
Alongside this, we changed our behaviour policy and moved towards positive discipline. We amended our HR policies so that staff wellbeing was formally included — for example, introducing a no-emailing-after-hours expectation and making more of an effort to create opportunities for staff to connect socially. These may seem like small steps, but they matter enormously to the people who work in our school every day.
Building a Policy Framework
We developed school-wide policies that we had not had in place before, both specifically about mental health and around it more broadly. We also updated our existing policies to reflect our desire to work meaningfully in these areas. These included, amongst others:
• Child Protection and Child Safeguarding Policy
• Su***de Prevention Policy
• Bereavement Policy
• Mutual Respect Policy
• S*x and Relationships Policy
• Self-Harm Policy
• Anti-Bullying Policy
Reviewing and developing these policies as a community was itself a valuable process. It required us to have honest conversations, to listen to different perspectives, and to think carefully about the kind of school we wanted to be.
A Programme of Support
Peer Support and Student Leadership
Our school counsellor works with our Year 6 prefects in weekly training sessions focused on peer support. Teaching young people how to support one another is one of the most powerful things we can do — it builds empathy, confidence and community all at once.
Mental Health First Aid Training
A number of our staff members have completed Mental Health First Aid training, for both pupils and adults. Having trained first aiders for mental health on our staff, just as we have for physical health, reflects the equal importance we place on both.
Student Workshops
We run a number of student workshops throughout the year, designed to promote important themes relating to mental health and wellbeing. These cover areas such as:
• Personal space and boundaries
• Navigating transitions
• Bullying and the importance of bystander intervention
• Online safety
Community and Specialist Partnerships
We work closely with specialists in our community in support of students who need more specialised help outside of school. We regularly meet with parents and have built strong, trusting relationships with our wider community. Mental health support cannot happen in isolation, and we are proud of the network of care that has grown around our school.
Listening, Reflecting and Improving
Each year, we carry out mental health and wellbeing questionnaires for both our students and our staff. We take the feedback we receive seriously — we reflect on it, discuss it, and try to make real adjustments and improvements based on what we hear. This annual cycle of listening and responding is, we believe, one of the most important things we do.
Finding the Carnegie Centre of Excellence
Along the way, we came across the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools and found it both interesting and highly relevant to the work we were doing. Their frameworks and strategies helped guide and validate our practice and gave us a shared language and structure with which to reflect on our approach.
We studied the frameworks carefully and decided that we would pursue an award with them as a way of benchmarking ourselves and continuing to raise our standards. Then, in March 2023, we proudly received the Bronze Award — and we are honoured to say that we were the first school in Cyprus to receive this recognition.
In March 2023, we became the first school in Cyprus to receive the Carnegie Centre of Excellence Bronze Award for Mental Health in Schools.
Looking Ahead: The Next Challenge
Receiving the Bronze Award encouraged our efforts enormously, and we have kept up everything that we do. But we have never seen this as a destination — it is a journey, and we are committed to continuing along it.
Now we are ready to face our next challenge. We are boldly working towards renewing our Bronze Award and, with ambition and optimism, exploring whether we are ready to go for the Silver Award. It will take effort, reflection and growth — but then, so has everything that has got us to where we are today.
We share this journey because we believe that mental health and wellbeing in schools matters deeply, and that schools are stronger when they share what they know. If any part of our experience is useful to you, your school, or your community — we are glad to have shared it, and we would love to hear from you.
