A school has been celebrating ‘virtually’ after scooping a wellbeing award.

Students and staff at Burnham’s Ormiston Rivers Academy are on a high after winning the Wellbeing Award for Schools.

The award, developed by the National Children’s Bureau and Optimus Education, acknowledges the work being done to promote mental health and wellbeing within school communities.

Ormiston Academy, sponsored by Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), has been on a two-year journey to achieve the award after implementing a strategy in 2018 to respond to increasing concerns around the mental wellbeing of pupils.

Principal Emma Baker said: “At Ormiston Rivers Academy the wellbeing of our students and staff is absolutely paramount.

“By working collaboratively with students, staff and the wider school community we believe we have created a school culture which highly values the happiness, emotional welfare and wellbeing of everyone within it.

“It is excellent to have received the Wellbeing Award, reflective of the hard work, creativity and collaboration students and staff have shown to get to where we are today.”

Ormiston Rivers Academy implemented a number of new initiatives, including a wellbeing space, a peer mentoring support programme led by ‘Wellbeing Warriors’ and new policies and procedures for staff to promote smarter ways of working.