SECONDARY school pupils are to benefit from extra mental health support with the construction of a new activity space.
Thomas Lord Audley School plans to build a “refurbished modular unit” on its premises in Monkwick Avenue, Colchester.
Planning documents approved by Colchester Council state: “The purpose and the use of this unit is for one-to-one activity space for the school”.
Headteacher Simon Essex said the school has seen an increase in school absences due to emotional wellbeing since the pandemic.
He said: “At Thomas Lord Audley, since Covid we have seen an increase in emotionally based school avoidance students.
“We require facilities to help support these students' ongoing education and therapeutic support.
“This is because we want to help them to re-engage with the normal school day, environment and facilities.”
Blueprints submitted by Steven Scott, of the Sigma Trust, state there is more “society awareness” on mental health wellbeing.
A statement explains how the school wants to provide additional support to students in a “safe and secure environment”.
As it stands, there is not enough space to accommodate this service inside the main school building.
The unit itself is 28.8 metre squared in size and will feature an activity space, toilet and kitchenette.
Planning documents show no areas of the playground will be lost as the earmarked site is grassed, however a “small tree” will have to be felled.
The project comes following a Government report into how the Covid pandemic impacted on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
The report said between March and June 2020, when schools were closed to most pupils, symptoms of depression and PTSD were found to have “significantly increased” among those aged between seven-and-a-half and 12.
But by September 2020 it was found behavioural, attention and emotional difficulties in children had returned to, and stablised at, a lower level.
Following pupils returning to school in March 2021 after another set of closures, families told the Gazette about their feelings.
Hannah Jo Roberts said: “Both my kids have gone in happy and I’m glad they’ll be back learning.”
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