How BISS supports mental health awareness through the Peer Education Project

What is PEP

The Peer Education Project is a project founded by the Mental Health Foundation in the UK. The project aims to improve knowledge about mental health for younger students whilst simultaneously improving relationships between older and younger students within a community.

Schools can apply to the project by having memebers of staff take part in an online training course. Afterwards, the staff recruit older students at the school to use the training resources provided by the foundation to teach lessons about mental health to younger students. All lessons and potential material are provided by the foundation but students have to tailor the lessons to their classes and deliver them in an engaging way. Lessons typically cover the foundation of what mental health is, some of the problems it can cause and how to improve it.

Here at BISS, Year 12 students recieve staff training and guidance to teach Year 7 student about mental health. Furthermore Year 8 students are receiving a refresher course on mental health during the 15 minutes of registration time in the morning.

Purposes

PEP not only allows for improved awareness around mental health, it also gives peer educators a way to improve their presenting skills and gain service for CAS.

By implementing PEP on a yearly basis, BISS hopes to consistently build the core knowledge around mental health as well as ensuring students feel empowered to reach out to members of the safeguarding team or older students about any potential worries.

For more information about BISS’ safeguarding team, feel free to contact us or visit our main website.