On the 20th October, at the start of half term, I will be running the Amsterdam Marathon, or at least attempting to!

Over the last two years I have witnessed students struggle with anxiety, their mental health and depression. I have also seen students coping with levels of adversity that I could not imagine. It is often said that the modern generation do not have the resilience that we had as teenagers; I disagree with this statement. When I was young, you could walk away from the school gates, close the door to your house and have a period of respite. The modern generation do not have this. The world of social media means that the pressure never disappears and anyone who is struggling with their surroundings finds that their troubles are amplified in a public and often harsh platform.

I agree that we need to build resilience in our children, but I believe we do this by offering support.

Therefore, I have decided to run the marathon to raise money for additional counselling within school. We currently have three different counselling services within school, that will not change, but I wish to supplement this further. I have paid for the admission fee, travel and accommodation personally, so every penny we raise will be ring fenced to ‘buy-in’ additional counselling hours to support our students.

Every penny raised will make a difference so I only ask that we each donate as much as we think is appropriate and affordable.