School arts project encourages pupils to express feelings

• Scheme helps students openly express their emotions with peers, families and community members
• The success has prompted school to expand its existing Mental Health Ambassadors programme

ACTION

Images of secondary school students striking bold poses under the banner "I am me" appeared on the walls of a community centre in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in April. Alongside each photo of the eight 15- to 18-year-olds from Swanlea School were short poems encapsulating a message about their own mental health. The display was the culmination of a two-month project led by the school to help young people raise awareness of mental health within their communities.

The need to improve school-based support for young people's mental health has been attracting policymakers' attention in recent years. But Swanlea School deputy head Kabir Miah says his school experiences more localised need because of the borough's demographic.

"There's still very much a social stigma attached to mental health," he says. "Broadly speaking 80 per cent of students are of Bangladeshi heritage. Some are considered a bit shameful to talk about, alongside different gendered expectations. Men aren't necessarily culturally encouraged to articulate their emotions."

As a result, the school designed an initiative with local youth community group the Mile End Community Project, and local authority-led community centre and library service, the Idea Store. The school funded the scheme using money from its devolved whole school budget and funding raised internally. Eight year 10 and 12 students volunteered to attend three after-school sessions, where facilitators encouraged them to speak openly about themselves - who they are as individuals, their frustrations and anxieties.

"We wanted the children to see they could have a voice, with impact, that could be shared more widely," says Miah. "That took a while. But building up that sense of trust, and being able to rely on other people, is a part of mental health. There's still a sense of isolation in our community."

Swanlea's media and marketing manager Zara Islam, who is also involved in the school's Mental Health First Aid scheme, supported the children. The Mile End Community Projects provided the group with a poet and photographer, who worked with them on creating the imagery and texts that represented them as empowered. Students were taught to use cameras to take photos and film, and the project ended with a photo shoot.

"In some of the communities we work with photography is discouraged, so that in itself was a brave thing," says Miah.

The eight images were launched as part of an arts festival at the Idea Store on 29 April. Each was accompanied by sound booths where visitors could hear the young people's recordings of their poetry. Mohona Qader's poem states: "Don't clip my wings / My contained can't be tamed."

"The poem encapsulates the challenge she had to make her mum see there was more to her than what her mum saw," explains Miah. "It's not easy, but she got through to her mum in the end."

The image of Adnan Alam shows a young man with his chin high, arms folded stridently across his chest. "I am a king," he declares.

Miah says they displayed the images in a public space to raise awareness of mental health beyond the school. Parents were invited to the launch, as an attempt to get them to engage with a community service. Miah says around half attended.

"All their parents allowed their children to take part; but some were more comfortable than others to come and see their children presenting and talking about their verses," he says.

"Every single one of those children has talked with their family about the learning they've had from the project. They talk about a very positive experience. It's small steps, realistically, and we're going to need to do more of this with families."

IMPACT

Six of the group have applied to become mental health ambassadors at the school from the autumn term - an existing scheme - as a result of their experiences.

The school displayed the images in the school library, which has led to the number of other students applying to become ambassadors to double.

Miah says seeing peers presenting the project in public gave all students a confidence boost, which helped them perform during university admissions interviews.

The project has also led students to discuss self-image and self-confidence issues in personal, social, health and economic classes.