stem4 held another successful multi-school mental health conference at the Oasis Academy in Coulsdon with 57 year 9 students. Mental Health awareness is a key priority at Oasis Academy Coulsdon where there is a Well-Being Centre run by a school nurse with full access to a range of external agencies, focusing on ways in which students can help themselves and their peers to handle the challenges that life has in store with the aim to have a balanced, meaningful and enjoyable life. Schools that attended the Conference included Oasis Academy Coulsdon, Riddlesdown and Woodcote High.
stem4 student conferences aim to focus on early identification and intervention, the Conference covered the four areas of mental health that stem4 offer support in – eating disorders; anxiety and depression; self-harm and addiction; – providing evidence-based information to promote best practice and share common experiences.
Students listen to speakers who may share lived experiences together with receiving clinical tips on what they can do to build resilience and manage their mental health as well as spot signs of early difficulties. The conference is interactive including discussion and group task. Given the strong focus of the charity on including tech within our work and data driven objectives, student learning was assessed at baseline level and then at the end of the conference using a student handheld digital rating tool.
Many students also stated that they found everything interesting, that they liked the presentations and the speakers and most importantly, said ‘it got the message through to us’ and also helped spread the message that looking after your mental health was important.
Speaking at the event were Chrissy B, Producer of the Chrissy B Show and Michael and Iain Maitland stem4 ambassadors in addition to Dr Nihara Krause, Founder and CEO of the charity and Sarah Sterne, Education Coordinator of stem4.
-82% of the students said that they would recommend the conference.
-74% of students said that the content of the conference was useful to them
stem4 was introduced to Oasis Coulsdon Academy by the First Give Philanthropy programme in 2018 and were delighted to welcome, Sophie, a representative of First Give who attended the conference.