Last week we had a small group of Year 12 students who led the Senior school assembly on the theme of mental health awareness, following a very successful #HelloYellow day on Thursday last week for World Mental Health Day. They gave information on the Every Mind Matters campaign run by the government in conjunction with the Royal Family. At the heart of the campaign is “My Mind Plan”; where people are asked a few simple questions about their mental health priorities and any specific concerns they currently have and an action plan is put together based on these needs, which people can then tailor to fit in with their lives. All the actions suggested can be safely attempted by anyone at little or no cost. Cristina, one of our Year 12 students wrote the following poem:

How We Think and How We Feel

How we think and how we feel
Are two parts of the same wheel.
The rim is the word that we speak out loud,
The hub is the feeling the word was allowed.

We hesitate and then we fear
And we lose hold of what is dear,
Though we are strong in body and mind
Our thoughts, our feelings, are unaligned.

We stutter, whisper and repeat,
We tremble and shuffle our feet.
We are uncertain, disconnected,
Our insecurities reflected.

But once we speak of what we feel,
We may begin to turn the wheel.
The hesitation is no more,
Like it was never said before.

The fear is never truly gone,
But its damage can be undone.
We speak our minds without a stutter,
Our feet are straight like any other.

And we are certain and connected
And in our bodies it’s reflected,
That we are confident and strong
And we have been so all along.

The path to peace is indeed steep,
And our feelings lay so deep.
And yes, the cliff rises so high
And it’s a fact we can’t deny.

But though the journey may seem tough,
A glimmer of hope may just be enough.
You can rise, like a star when the night comes by,
And shine under the blue open sky.