Mental Wellbeing
In addition to Place2Be, who work in the school providing support for students and details are on our Place2Be page, you will find information below of organisations providing support, counselling and advice.
Cruse Bereavement Care
Find more details about this service on their website, including the Cruse chat Monday to Friday 9am - 9pm.
www.cruse.org.uk or telephone their helpline 0808 808 1677
Jigsaw4U
Jigsaw4U provides free telephone advice, support and bereavement counselling. Support is available for Merton students and families - telephone 020 8687 1384
Rainbows Resource Centre
A charitable organisation which offers peer support groups.
Rainbows Resource Centre or telephone 01582 724 106
Wimbledon Guild
The guild offer a counselling service - telephone 020 8296 0030
Winstons Wish
Winstons Wish is a charity which offers help to bereaved children and their families after the death of a parent or sibling.
Winstons Wish or telephone 08088 020 021
Coping with Assessments and Exam Stress
A new video has been produced by the Merton Young Inspectors who lead on the U18’s COVID Community Champions Programme. This video features an interview with Dr Joshua Eldridge, a Clinical Psychologist. He speaks to the Young Inspectors about how pupils can successfully manage exam and assessment stress. Please follow this link:
Talk to Us Off the Record
Talk to us off the record is a Merton based counselling and support service for young people, parents and carers.
Off the Record will be running a telephone support line for young people cross the winter holiday period. This will operate daily from 3pm - 6pm Friday 24 December to Monday 3 January.
Freephone 0800 980 7475
You can find more details at:
Email: merton@talkofftherecord.org
Kooth Online Counselling Service in Merton
This is a free online counselling service called Kooth, which the NHS offers for all young people aged 11-22 in Merton
It’s a free online chat service that works on your phone or computer. There are no waiting lists and it’s totally anonymous – you just make up a name.
You can watch this YouTube video to explain how Kooth help.
Local teenage mental health charity STEM4, promotes positive mental health in teenagers and those who support them including families and carers, through the provision of mental health education, resilience strategies and early intervention. This is primarily provided digitally through the free STEM4 apps: ‘Clear Fear’, a programme to support the management of anxiety disorders; ‘Calm Harm’, a programme to manage self-harming behaviours; and ‘Combined Minds’, a strengths based approach for families and friends supporting someone with a mental health condition. Apps can be downloaded for free onto smartphones. Further information can be found on their website.
Talking about mental health can be difficult. Please watch this video of Stormzy talking about his experience with mental health.
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London Borough of Merton - Early Years Events - Eventbrite Below you will find a list of all courses currently available for Merton parents and carers. Booking closes 3 days before each course starts, or when the course becomes fully booked. Courses become available for booking roughly 1-3 months before the course starts. |
Family Information and Support Hubs provide an access point for parents/carers to gain information, advice and guidance on a range of subjects helping them to think about what support they need and empowering them to access the information or help that they need.
Sessions are 45 minutes long and offered both face to face and virtually, bookable via Eventbrite (either by parents/carers themselves or by a practitioner on their behalf)
Physical Wellbeing
Students at Rutlish are provided with an extensive extra-curricular programme in addition to their PE lessons. Physical activity has great benefit to both the body and the mind. The NHS recommends that young people aim for an average of at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity a day across the week; this should be a combination of aerobic exercise, and exercises to strengthen bones and muscle. Moderate activities will make you breathe faster and feel warmer.
Examples of moderate intensity activities you may wish to be involved in outside school include:
- walking
- playground activities
- riding a scooter
- skateboarding
- rollerblading
- walking the dog
- cycling on level ground or ground with few hills
Cardiac Risk in the Young - CRY
CRY offers subsidised ECG and Echocardiogram screening to all young people between the ages of 14 & 35.
There is a simple way to diagnose most cardiac abnormalities. This is by having an ECG (electrocardiogram) test with results read by a cardiologist. For extra clarity an Echocardiogram can also be done. If there has been a young (under 35) sudden death in the family, the family is entitled to be screened on the NHS. All of CRY’s public events are free to attend.
At a CRY screening we use a medical history questionnaire and ECG, echocardiograms are carried out on the day also if our Dr requests further investigation is required.
Find out more here: CARDIAC SCREENING - C-R-Y.ORG.UK
Vaping and E-cigarettes
Please see the below for the facts about vaping and e-cigarettes.