Wellbeing Information

This section of the website is for you. This is the place where you can find information to help and support you and your family when you need it. We all need help sometimes!

You can always ring your GP or speak to someone at home or at school in the first instance. 

Below are some helpful links:

Support Helplines

• Anna Freud National Centre - if you are feeling overwhelmed, text 85258 for free, anonymous support from trained volunteers. 
• Childline - Call free on 0800 1111 or look at the website for free confidential support, guidance and advice.
• FRANK - A confidential helpline for anyone in the UK concerned about drug use.
• NHS Mental Health Helpline for Urgent Help - Find a local NHS urgent mental health helpline in England, 24 hours a day.
• Samaritans - Whatever you're going through, you can call Samaritans free any time on 116 123 or go online for advice.

Online & In-Person Services

• Bath and North East Somerset CAMHS - CAMHS is a specialist service that helps children and young adults who are struggling with a range of different mental health issues.

• Calm Harm App - An app to help manage the urge to self-harm.  It is completely private and password-protected.

• Cruse Bereavement Support - Cruse offers a free, confidential service for adults and children by telephone, email or face-to-face after the death of someone close.

• Doc Ready - Doc Ready helps you get ready for the first time you visit a doctor to discuss your mental health

• Family Lives - Helping parents to deal with the changes that are a constant part of family life.

• Focus Counselling - A counselling service in the centre of Bath, providing affordable, person-centred therapy.  The service holds an anxiety group for 13-18 year olds every other Wednesday at The Crypt, St. Michaels Church.

• Get early help | Bath and North East Somerset Council - Find out how to get help early on for children, young people and their families with clear, multiple or complex needs.

• Gingerbread - Gingerbread provides expert advice, practical support and campaigns for single parents.

• Headspace - Meditation via an app - anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

• Kooth - a free online mental wellbeing community offering free, safe and anonymous support for children and young people.  Counsellors and therapists are available until 10pm, 365 days a year.

• Off The Record Bath and North East Somerset - provides a range of free, confidential and independent services including counselling, listening support, youth participation and support for care leavers.  It also holds an LGBTQ+ focused youth group every Tuesday in Bath - call 07872 992 879 / 01225 312 481, or email space@offtherecord-banes.co.uk for more information.

• Project 28 – Project 28 is a young people’s drug and alcohol service in Bath & North East Somerset.  Young people are offered support around drug/alcohol use, employment and training needs and gives a physical space to spend time and access services.

• Refuge - The largest domestic abuse organisation in the UK supporting women and children to overcome the physical, emotional, financial and logistical impacts of abuse.

• Rethink Mental Illness - Rethink provides expert, accredited advice and information for everyone affected by mental health problems.

• Self Injury Support - Support for girls and young women affected by self-injury.

• Sirona Care & Health - A service for all young people in education, providing health-related support, advice and treatment to school age children and their families in a variety of settings.

• Southside - Southside provides families with expert, independent, reliable help in BANES.

• The Carers’ Centre - Support for children and young adults who are young carers.

• Willow Project – The Willow project is a service that offers young people at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation support. The Willow Project will work with young people one to one to raise awareness and reduce risk. 

• Winston's Wish - A charity for bereaved children, with a range of practical support on uidance as well as specialist support programmes.

• Women's Aid - A national service for women experiencing domestic violence.  Includes a 24-hour National Domestic Violence freephone helpline on 0808 2000 247.

• Youth Connect – Youth Connect offer a wide range of services for young people in Bath and the surrounding areas at Youth Connect South West.

• YoungMinds - YoungMinds is the UK's leading charity committed to improving children and young people's emotional wellbeing and mental health.

All staff in RAS have received training on what to do if they have any concerns about the mental health of our young people as part of their safeguarding training. All staff complete the National College Safeguarding training module and PREVENT training certificate. For more information about our Safeguarding policies and training please see our safeguarding pages

If a member of staff has any worries about a student – this could even be small concerns about behaviour or appearance – they will inform the safeguarding team who will act appropriately and ensure every young person receives the help they require.  

33 members of Ralph Allen Staff have received training from Bath Mind to become a Youth MHFA Champion. These members of staff have received training in the understanding of common mental health issues and how they can affect young people; the ability to spot signs of mental ill health in young people and guide them to a place of support; knowledge and confidence to advocate for mental health awareness, and skills to support positive wellbeing.

Our PSHE Lead and Student Services Manager have both been trained on Solution-Focused approaches by Boys in Mind. They have a good understanding of the main solution-focused approach, they are trained in solution-focused questioning and language and they are equipped with some new ideas about good ways of listening to people. Moving forward, we will continue to train more staff in Solution-Focused approaches and ensure these staff are easily identifiable to our students.

Our pastoral team and senior leaders hold regular preventative and awareness raising assemblies focusing on issues affecting our young people today (online safety, sexual violence and harassment, Me 2 campaign, equalities and mental health.) These assemblies are supported by a 'tutor values programme' which promotes and follows the five ways of Wellbeing endorsed by the NHS to: Connect, Give, Keep Learning, Be Active and Take Notice. 

To support our students in recovery from the last few turbulent years we have increased our counselling provision. We now have a qualified counsellor in school every day.  

We are also delighted to be supported by our Ralph Allen School Counsellor and specialist outside agencies: 

Michelle Webster is our school counsellor and works in Ralph Allen three days a week.

Off the Record which provides counselling, talking therapy and listening support is in school twice a week.

CAMHS MHST - Mental Health Support Team are working in Ralph Allen School on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This team focus on young people with mild and moderate presentations of mental health. 

Bath Youth for Christ - 2 mentors work with our students on Friday mornings

Holy Trinity Church Mentor,  Stuart Mclachlan, works with our students 2 afternoons a week.

Bath Mentoring Plus

Like every school community across the country, we have been affected by the last turbulent few years of the Covid pandemic.

In March 2020 as schools were closed to all students, apart from the children of our key worker families, we were increasingly aware of the social and psychological impact on the whole population and especially on young people. We knew our children would be worrying about health, the effects on their education, social events being cancelled, not seeing their friends and anxious about when they would see their grandparents and other family members. Some of our young people have suffered bereavements and loss. They have also had the additional role, following Government advice, to keep at a safe distance to protect those around them.

At the beginning of the first school closure, we knew it was a priority to stay in contact with our students. We wanted to reassure our parents, carers and young people that their wellbeing was as important to us as their academic progress. Staff quickly came together to organise a balance of activities to support physical and mental health as students began their home learning. We encouraged our young people to establish a routine which included time for the physical challenges designed by our PE Team, academic challenges and building in opportunities to connect.

At Ralph Allen School we promote and follow the five ways of Wellbeing, endorsed by the NHS, to Connect, Give, Keep Learning, Be Active & Take Notice. We knew this time was an opportunity for our students to learn a new skill or complete some personal challenges, for example completing the Ralph Allen Taskmaster challenges or entering our scientific photographic competition. These were all celebrated on our Gallery of Online Learning.

Our pastoral teams worked tirelessly in the first lockdown, connecting and encouraging our students to be kind to themselves. We offered ways to stay calm including using mindfulness and other relaxation techniques; offered advice on using social media safely; practical tips on eating well; the importance of sleep; and ensuring our school community knew where to ask for support and help if needed.

We also immediately increased our students’ counselling and bereavement provision and offered our parents and carers support, as we were aware our wider school community were also affected by the pandemic.

Wider School Community

The last couple of years has reinforced our pride in our wider school community. Our staff, students, parents and carers have embraced the Ralph Allen ethos of Respect, Teamwork and Personal Best as we have all rallied to support each other through these unprecedented times.

As a school, we wanted to ensure we kept a physical presence in the wider community during the school closures. Our staff kept connected with our students by weekly visits to locations around the city in our school minibuses. Students collected laptops, stationery, work packs and library books to keep them reading, and also handed in school work, saw a friendly face and asked for support. These weekly road trips around the city were popular with our staff and students as it kept that important positive bridge between home and school. We extended this provision by organising a Click & Collect service so our students and families could collect stationery top-ups when required.

Ralph Allen also worked in conjunction with The Holburne Museum in Bath, offering our students wellbeing activities, creative packs of art materials and resources for them to explore their creative talents and have fun over the summer break.

Our Design and Technology teachers worked together to make PPE masks for the NHS and also fabric masks for our staff and students.

As a school community we supported the local food bank project to collect and deliver food to families facing an emergency 3 times a week.

At Ralph Allen we value kindness as one of the most important human qualities. We set weekly challenges for our students and staff to complete random acts of kindness which we shared with our local community. The staff at Ralph Allen also kept our students smiling by recording their own versions of 'Reach for the Stars', a Christmas song and motivational poems. What a brilliant community effort!