PASTORAL CARE

In September 2016, something very exciting happened here at Varndean School in Brighton. Five short, fluffy, slight tubby pygmy goats entered our lives for the first time and have barged, bleated and bumped their way into our hearts and our school community ever since. The first four goats, Maya, Bertie, Alan and Ethel are named after our four school bases - Angelou, Russell, Turing and Ellis. The last one, William, is named after our headteacher, William Deighan.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” - William Shakespeare

At some point in our lives most of us, for one reason or another, will suffer from anxiety, which affects our ability to function as we usually would. For some young people, anxiety-based problems can be long term, debilitating and leaving them in need of outside intervention. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2012) estimates that as many as one in 33 children and one in eight adolescents are suffering from depression at any one time. Young people often find it helpful to talk through problems with a friend or family member, but sometimes talking to a trained professional may be a more appropriate course of action.

Teenage romantic relationships can often be short-lived but powerful, with adolescents experiencing high-intensity feelings and emotions. Sometimes, a young person’s lack of experience in adult relationships can result in abusive behaviour being overlooked or ignored should it occur.

The rise in numbers of children and young people suffering from mental health conditions has risen sharply in the last few years. One of the reasons for this is that mental health is more widely and openly talked about, but also that there is also greater recognition and diagnosis.

In order to make our website better for you, we use cookies!

Some firefox users may experience missing content, to fix this, click the shield in the top left and "disable tracking protection"