View YouTube video here – YouTube Xpress Yourself Q&A

Last week three Year 10 students from King’s Leadership Academy Hawthornes took part in the Xpress Yourself Q&A session which was held in conjunction with YPAS and MYA as part of Children’s Mental Health Week.

The panel included staff from MYA, YPAS and 4 Year 10 students (3 of which were from our King’s Hawthornes). The session was live and was streamed on YouTube and the students were asked a number of questions relating to Lockdown and how they were coping with the current situation. They spoke about what help was available for them in school, what sort of things they had been doing to stay happy and how they were able to stay connected with their friends. The students presented themselves in a mature and confident manner and were a credit to the school.

The event was a result of work that our students have been involved with before the current lockdown in partnership with the MYA. Seven of them have been training to be Mentors in Violence Prevention and this culminated in them teaching two sessions on ‘The Role of the Bystander’ and ‘Gender Stereotyping’ to all of our Year 7s during Super Learning Day in December. It was a great success and they coped really well with some very tricky topic areas. The Year 7s really enjoyed being taught by Year 10s and it was a great example of how our students are becoming leaders within our school and community. We hope to continue to develop this project in the future and create a core of pupil mentors.