Horsham school to host columnist Suzi Godson for mental health conference

Christ's Hospital students. Photo by Toby Philips

Senior pupils at Christ’s Hospital are heading up the conference on Thursday, and they are inviting schools from all over the south east to attend.

The keynote speaker will be Suzi Godson, sex and relationships columnist for The Times newspaper.

Suzi Godson also founded the MeeTwo app, which provides a safe forum for teenagers to discuss any issues and receive anonymous help and advice from mental health experts and other teenagers going through similar experiences.

The mental health conference will involve three separate workshops on various issues run by registered mental health professionals and experts from three charities.

There will also be a interactive panel discussion and end with a brief question and answer session with Suzi Godson and the mental health experts.

The event is being organised by a group of 19 prefects at the school.

The group decided to take action after noticing that while there are many mental health conferences run for teachers and adults there are no such conferences for students.

Head pupil Andre Da Silva-Jenkins said: “We view this conference as a means through which we might take action, our own small way of making a difference in the world.

“To put it in simple terms, we want to seek out solutions as opposed to merely highlighting problems.

“Wellbeing support is continuously discussed here at Christ’s Hospital, but this year we wanted to make this discussion inclusive of other schools too.

“We are therefore very excited to host our 2020 Mental Health Conference, in which we hope to lead and promote conversation about self-care.”

Representatives from 14 schools are expected to attend, including Tonbridge, Eton, Ardingly School, Haileybury School, Whitgift School, The Weald, Cranleigh School, The College of Richard Collyer, Dulwich College and Seaford College.

The invitation to attend extends to a maximum of two members of staff and three students from each school.

Interested parties are requested to confirm their attendance by emailing [email protected]