Praise for mental health training offered to parents

As part of our commitment to student wellbeing we have been working with the training group Learning Curve.

We have had over 30 staff members undertake a range of courses on behaviour management, understanding autism and counselling skills.

Earlier this year also saw us open enrolment on the ‘Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health’ course to interested parents as well.

We were delighted to receive this recently from one of our parents who participated, which is a great testimonial to how the course has benefited her both personally and professionally:

“I am a parent of a year seven student at Ormiston Six Villages Academy.

“Earlier this year I read in the Ormiston Six Villages Academy weekly letter about the opportunity for parents to enrol on a free of charge VRQ Level 2 Course in Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health through the school.

“I read that many staff had completed the course and had found it useful from both a personal and professional point of view.

“I thought that this would be a great insight as a parent and may enhance my working life too.

“I went along to the friendly enrolment meeting at the school and met other parents and members of staff there who were thinking along the same lines as me.

“The course can be completed online by reading and using your own experiences as case studies. I had access to a remote tutor who was very approachable and supportive.

I completed the course in March and found it really enjoyable and relevant to my life.

“Later that month I saw a vacancy for a role at a local college very similar to that of my remote tutor for my course.

“I have a background in this area (although not with VRQS) and have worked with young people for many years.

“I applied and was offered the post just before lockdown started at the end of March.

“Since that time I have been able to establish myself in the role and work freelance/part time/from home with the VRQ L2 courses for Business and Health and Care.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity that arose through Six Villages and the encouragement I received from the staff there.

“It would not have been something I would have considered had I not seen it offered in my son’s school.”