How does St Christopher’s School prioritise mental health and wellbeing?

How does St Christopher’s School prioritise mental health and wellbeing?

Gulf Insider speaks to Jamie O’Dowd, Assistant Head Teacher at the St. Christopher’s Senior School about their Enrichment programme, the importance of having happy students, and students’ mental health and wellbeing.

Can you briefly tell us about the school’s Enrichment programme and the recent changes that have been made?

The Enrichment programme is our version of PSAG. We deal with aspects of the child’s education that has to do with their moral, social, and cultural education – the kind of things that are not covered in the standard academic lessons.

The improvements we have made include increasing our focus on a child’s wellbeing and mental health.

There’s an old belief in teaching that if a student does well at school, they will achieve good grades, get a good job, and then they will be happy. What the industry is having to rethink is that – first and foremost – we need to ensure that young people are happy. Happy students achieve well in school. They achieve good grades, which will result in them getting better jobs and being happy.

What has been the response from the students since this programme has been implemented?

Students have been fundamental in the redesign of Enrichment. We’ve consulted them at