A primary school has launched a new social media page to help parents and their children’s mental health through this latest lockdown.

Astley Primary School has set up a pastoral support team (PST) Twitter page to help keep the school community connected with tips and advice for people’s mental wellbeing.

The PST was formed in October 2020 with the intention of sharing ideas, offering support, advice, practical tools and encouragement to children and their families. The team comprises of Claire Riches and Claire Sutton.

Headteacher of Astley, Jen Goakes, said: “Accessing pastoral support has always been top of Astley's agenda as part of a historic school ethos, to offer love and care and focus on children's well-being.

Dereham Times: Claire Riches who is a member of the pastoral support team at Astley Primary SchoolClaire Riches who is a member of the pastoral support team at Astley Primary School (Image: Astley Primary School)

“Now more than ever, we feel the need to implement a whole school, rounded approach."

The PST have already developed their own good following which is generating positive feedback.

The team can use the page to interact with families in a way they haven't been able to before, engage parents who are not coming in and out of the school playground regularly and share articles and useful websites with families.

The development of the page comes as the team believe this third lockdown is having more of an effect on people.

Dereham Times: Claire Sutton who is a member of the pastoral support team at Astley Primary SchoolClaire Sutton who is a member of the pastoral support team at Astley Primary School (Image: Astley Primary School)

You can follow the page here, or search @pst_astley on Twitter.

The EDP is holding its own virtual conference focusing on mental health on Friday, February 12.

Open Up is a series of virtual workshops, interviews and debates taking place online with sessions on a range of topics being free to watch.

The event comes a year after the first Open Up conference, which took place at the former Open charity venue last March

Open Up is run in conjunction with Norfolk County Council, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, Norfolk & Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group and Mind Norfolk and Waveney.

The event will begin at 8.30am with a 30-minute session exercises at home and finish at 4pm and people will be able to log in and out depending on the sessions of most interest to them.

To sign up for the free event click here, or visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/open-up-tickets-138246449853