Our students have been helping Calderdale’s Public Health Team understand how they can best support the people of Calderdale during the coronavirus pandemic.

Two groups of pupils met with Becky Greenwood, Public Health Intelligence Officer, online, to share their personal experiences of the pandemic, including specific problems they have faced and the information and support they have received.

Issues raised by the students included the impact on their own and their families’ mental health; disruption to their learning, particularly in relation to GCSE studies and exams; political matters; the reliability of new sources and the understanding of key public health messages.

As well as providing valuable feedback for the Public Health Team, the sessions also provided us at the Academy with a great insight into how our students have experienced and coped with the challenging circumstances of this year. We will use this information to develop and improve online learning and the mental health and wellbeing support we offer to students.

The meetings with Becky offered our students an opportunity for their voices to be heard, for them to challenge assumptions about young people’s behaviour and attitudes towards the crisis and also enabled them to put forward their information and opinions for the benefit of others – contributing to improvements in how we all tackle the disease going forward.