Ben Stokes, as you may know, is the current England Cricket Captain; he is a tremendously talented and successful sportsman, but also one who has encountered some well publicised difficulties.  Most notably, he took a period away from cricket to prioritise his mental health a couple of years back, which is explored at length in the documentary mentioned above.  There are a number of words that spring to mind after seeing someone like Ben Stokes speak so openly in his interview with Sam Mendes.  Moving? Inspiring? Reassuring?  It is so important that successful people in the public eye and, dare I say it, successful male sportsmen, talk candidly about this subject.

We take mental health seriously here at Pilgrims’.  We were one of the first schools in the area to appoint a Director of Wellbeing when Matt Shroff championed the need for a role like this and, with the support of leadership, developed it into the position we now have.  As of September 2022, having a mental health lead in a school is now recommended in the statutory guidance to be found in KCSIE (Keeping Children Safe in Education). When the updated version of this document was published in September, it was of some satisfaction to us that we already had this in place. The baton has now passed to Craig Cuyler, who is continuing Matt’s sterling work (not least with his excellent articles in the newsletter each week; I recommend them strongly).

Other things signal Pilgrims’ intent in this area.  The Wellbeing Matters Live sessions on a Saturday morning, which began at the start of this term, have been both well attended and very interesting.   In 2020, one of the school’s key Governing Body committees changed its name from the Education Committee, to Academic, Pastoral and Safeguarding; the rise in profile for pastoral care and Safeguarding is not an accidental.

Having watched the Ben Stokes documentary, his recent roaring success with the England test team is all the more impressive, and shows us that people can struggle at times in their lives, but still comeback to tremendous success; that has to be an encouraging message.

(I strongly recommend that you give 2:44 of your life to watching at least the trailer: Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes)

Alistair Duncan
Interim Head