WEEK OF ACTION: Falinge Tackles Mental Health
17th January 2023
This week is the EFL Week of Action; highlighting some of the fantastic work being done in communities all over the country.
Thanks to funding from Greater Manchester Combined Authority, during 2022 Rochdale AFC Community Trust have delivered a range of mental wellbeing programmes, piloting innovative approaches to meet local need and engaged over 500 people; reaching many who may not have previously engaged.
One such programme was our Secondary Schools’ Mental Wellbeing Programme, most recently taking place in Falinge Park High School; less than 2 miles ‘up the road’ from the Crown Oil Arena.
The programme consisted of working with 17 girls in total; 12 in year 8 (group 1), and 5 in year 9 (group 2). They were identified as girls who lacked confidence and needed to develop their self-esteem and overall mental wellbeing. The aim was to improve their knowledge and skills around mental wellbeing to help improve their social skills, psychological and physical wellbeing.
A 5-week programme was created with each year group receiving a one-hour session every week. The girls participated in a wide variety of activities within sessions, aiming to be as interactive and engaging as possible. Pupils’ wellbeing is essential to being successful at school both academically and to ensure growth as an individual. Topics covered throughout the programme included reframing your mindset and negative thoughts, confidence building, communication, managing stress as well as social media and the effect on your wellbeing.
Pre- and post-questionnaires provided insight into the impact of the programme, and in just 5 weeks the girls saw some incredible changes:
Students said:
“I liked how open we could be and that we could speak about anything”
“It helps to express your feelings without people judging you and it helped me with my confidence”
“I’m going to carry on using strategies to calm myself down, and learnt not to think about what people think about me and feeling more confident”
“This place is amazing and going to this is the best, we should do it more”
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Falinge Park High School for taking part in the 5-week programme, which we’re delighted is continuing it’s roll out in 2023!
If you’d like more information, contact our Health and Wellbeing Coordinator, Chloe Meade, on: chloe.meade@rochdaleafc.co.uk
