Beyond Ofsted: Bloom paves the way
Following an Ofsted inspection in 2020, Notley High in Essex pledged to implement strategies to improve students’ behaviour and wellbeing. Alongside other initiatives, Bloom was brought on board to foster and strengthen the school’s commitment to building a supportive environment for young people’s wellbeing.
Initially, the twenty Year 10 students who took part in the 8 week co-delivery programme were reticent to engage. Becky, a 15 year old student, explained, “with this generation, you’ve got so many more people with mental health issues, and so many of them don’t want to speak up about it because they feel like they’re going to get pushed away.”
Baseline surveys confirmed less than 15% of participating students felt they were able to work out their problems independently and just over 13% felt confident enough to reach out to others in times of need.
The resilience tools and resources equipped students to understand and cope more effectively, as Jo Morton-Brown, the School Counsellor, observed:
– Jo Morton-Brown, Notley High School Counsellor"One student shared they had been victim to bullying behaviour – it’s as if Bloom helped her find her voice."
Another student cited the resilience techniques she learned as her favourite aspect of the workshops: “it’s given me more strategies for how I can cope.”
By the final week, 50% of participating students felt they were able to deal with their problems independently and 50% felt confident to reach out for help if they felt they needed it, a significant uplift from the baseline data. As Jo hoped, Bloom enabled the school to bridge the gap between whole-school interventions such as the school’s open-door policy and one-to-one interventions like counselling, making their overall wellbeing offer more holistic.
To learn more about the work our Bloom team do across the UK, download our full impact report here.
