MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Amesbury offers dedicated mental health and wellbeing provision for pupils, with a Mental Health and Wellbeing Leader and purpose built indoor and outdoor spaces for children; the Wellbeing Hub and the Hub Garden.
Amesbury is a community leader in providing mental health and wellbeing support for young people; in 2023 a dedicated Mental Health and Wellbeing development plan for the whole school community was launched, which was shared with numerous other schools in the area to build a culture of sharing best practice to help all our young people.
The strengthened focus on mental health and wellbeing is in response to demand – the post-pandemic era and highly pressured online and social media lifestyle that children has to contend with trickled into many aspects of life and the school day. Just a quick glance at the news and it was widely accepted that this was being felt more and more in classrooms across the whole of the UK. The Government has already stipulated that state schools should develop a Mental Health and Wellbeing role, releasing funds for training. Amesbury recognised that this should also be a focus for independent and private schools and took a leading and proactive approach to support pupils, staff, and also parents as much as possible. Amesbury became one of the first independent prep schools in the county to create this as a dedicated position with a stand-alone wellbeing Hub space as well.
MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING TEAM
Amesbury’s mental health and wellbeing is led by Jo Clark, a registered nurse. Jo works alongside the Deputy Head Pastoral, Mr Armitage, and the school’s clinical psychologist, Dr Tom Smiley. In addition, the Head of PSHE, Life Skills and the Amesbury Award scheme, Mrs Page, continues her focus on wider character development, with them both working to bring new topics and workshops to build resilience and self-care skills.
The role offers an additional layer of support to tutors, heads of sections and parents, with part of the focus being on addressing low-level wellbeing topics in a proactive manner, as well as creating time for more 1-2-1 or small group sessions in the school’s Wellbeing Hub with pupils who needed a little extra support.
JO CLARK
Jo Clark has worked in medical services for 17 years, joining Amesbury during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Her background is in the military. She completed 14 years of service in the Army as a commissioned officer. Initially her career focused on leadership and management as well as gaining operational experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. She then went on to be awarded an in-service degree scholarship to become a qualified nursing officer and then worked alongside the NHS at Frimley Park hospital. She was medically retired from service in 2020 following a long-term illness – from which she has now made a full recovery and is enjoying a busy life with her husband, three children and her horses. She has a passion for open water swimming and paddleboarding and is an enthusiastic age group triathlete with short and long course races under her belt.
Jo has a keen interest in a functional and holistic approach to healthcare – she graduated from the Institute of Functional Medicine’s AFMCP programme in 2018, having learned firsthand the impact that struggling with poor physical and mental health could have on everyday life. Wanting to bring a broader approach to her nursing and general care, she actively took her own personal experiences of managing and needing help to work through living with service-related PTSD into her work and takes pride in being able to empathise and relate to people who a bit more time to work through complex emotions. She knows and understands the link between both physical and mental wellbeing and will always consider the two together.
Jo has completed months of preparatory training for this role, she has Counselling Skills certification, Youth Mental Health first aid and Safeguarding and is a qualified Mental Health First Aid Instructor.
