The Teenage Girls Mental Wellbeing and Aspirations Programme with Wellfield School

At Building Self-Belief, one of our most popular programmes to deliver is the mental wellbeing and aspirations programme, designed to improve the self-esteem and confidence of young people in areas of socio-economic underprivilege. We believe that by intervening early, this programme will equip young people with the skills and strategies required to effectively deal with issues surrounding them, minimising the likelihood of future mental health issues and maximising their future potential.

Year 9 Girls at Wellfield School

Recently, we completed this programme with a group of year 9 girls from Wellfield School. The programmes are always child-centred, therefore we let the students choose the topics that they would like us to cover, and we allow the group discussions to guide themselves. Some topics that we covered across the sessions included unhelpful thinking, friendships, self-esteem, body image, healthy eating and eating disorders. One of the most successful topics was the session where we covered self-esteem where they had to rank the key areas of their life, identify the positive and work on the areas that they felt were the most negative. It was delightful to see how much progress the girls made over the course of the programme.

Newcastle University Visit

The culmination of the programme was a trip to visit Newcastle University. The majority of the girls aspired to go down the more academic career route, hoping to be successful in careers such as midwifery, paramedic science, veterinary science or architecture. This visit included an excellent introductory presentation from Psychology Lecturer, Dr Helen St Clair-Thompson, followed by the chance for the girls to ask questions about university life. Some questions included moving away from home, sports and societies, teaching hours and choosing a subject to study, which were expertly answered by some current BSc Psychology undergraduate students. We were then modelled some current psychology research on topics such as facial recognition, spatial recognition and cognitive memory. Finally, we were taken on a tour of the university facilities including the lecture theatres, study spaces and the sports centre, where the girls were surprised by the size of the university and the range of opportunities on offer. It most definitely had a positive impact on their views about university life.

Their feedback included;

‘I liked seeing the facilities and didn’t realise how many extracurricular activities there are to do outside of your course’.

‘I want to study architecture at Newcastle University’.

‘I plan to study mental psychology’.

Escape Rooms and Restaurant Visit

After walking past Fenwick’s Christmas window, we arrived for the second part of the trip at the escape room. The group split in half, and we battled it out to escape in time. This team-building activity showed just how much the girls have developed in confidence and resilience throughout the programme, as they worked extremely well together to ensure that both groups made it out on time. New friendships were made, and skills were learnt, and it was a great opportunity for the girls to bond outside of school.

Their responses included:

‘I learnt better teamwork and liked solving problems as a team in the escape room’.

‘I enjoyed the escape rooms because I like thinking outside of the box’.

We ended the day with a delicious meal at Portofino’s Italian restaurant, where the girls were challenged to use their new-found confidence to order their own meals and try something new off the menu. All of the girls thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the opportunity to share some fabulous food with friends. Many of the girls feel self-conscious eating in front of others but they told us that they 'feel more confident going to a restaurant now’. Plus, ‘The atmosphere in the restaurant was nice and I enjoyed talking with others while eating delicious food’.

The trip was the perfect end to the programme, which everyone enjoyed immensely. The university visit opened their eyes to the range of opportunities out there, and the escape room helped develop skills of patience and resilience. All of the young people loved the insightful and exciting day out of school and recommended the programme to others.

‘I enjoyed eating with other people in public, seeing university life and seeing how social university is’.

‘I enjoyed everything about the trip!’

A huge thank you to Dr Helen St Clair-Thompson and the staff and students at Newcastle University for organising an excellent visit and giving up their time to be so enthusiastic towards the students. Thank you also to Owen Shield at Wellfield School for being so supportive of the girls and us throughout the programme.