“Tellmi works for our students, and that works for me.”
Mark Lauder, Headmaster, Strathallan School
Strathallan School
Using Tellmi to provide stigma-free support for students.
In 2021 Strathallan School in Scotland started working in partnership with us to offer a digital mental health tool to their pupils. Already proactive in this area, the school wanted to be able to offer an alternative tool to young people who are not receiving face to face support and who might benefit from peer to peer support. Strathallan also saw that working with Tellmi to deliver our engagement programmes, work experience and ambassador programmes complimented their ethos and helped further embed mental health and wellbeing throughout the school.
Key benefits and outcomes for Strathallan School
The Tellmi engagement programme ensures that students are aware of a safe and effective digital mental health tool that is available to them.
School staff are reassured to know that pupils can choose from a range of mental health support available to them, increasing the likelihood that they will access support when needed.
Tellmi Insight reports, based on anonymised data from the app, helps improve staff understanding of wellbeing issues faced by their students.
Highlighting top topics on the app, enables the school to address issues in a more targeted way
Through supporting pupils and better informing staff of their needs, the Tellmi service has helped add value to the pastoral and wellbeing care that the school is already providing.
A high percentage of boys signed up to the app, ensuring that this often hard to reach cohort is being supported.
Students at Strathallan make more replies to help other users on the app, showing that they are caring, empathetic and resilient.
What the organisation faced
Headmaster Mark Lauder said “There is still a bit of a taboo around mental health and wellbeing” and the school wanted to further embed their ethos that mental health and wellbeing is a very important part of school life. There was also recognition that although many students are not at the stage of going to CAMHS, they can still need support. Strathallan was keen that their pupils learn how to help themselves, feel listened to and know who the 'fixers' are in the school. There was an element of scepticism around mental health tools, so the school knew that they would have to get parents and staff to understand the value of the app,as well as engaging the students.
What Strathallan School did
Educated staff and parents about the value of using Tellmi and the benefits of early intervention and prevention using marketing materials created and delivered by Tellmi.
Supported Tellmi’s delivery of virtual work experience and Ambassador programme. This provided students with the opportunity to learn about positive mental health and wellbeing as well as encourage them to use and engage with the Tellmi app.
Used the termly reports and anonymised data insights from their students on the app to inform assemblies, PSHE lessons and help with planning of wellbeing activities for the next term.
Shared the anonymous data insights with their counsellors to help improve their understanding of issues that were arising.
Raised awareness as to the importance of anonymity as a way of building trust and enabling young people to have the confidence to talk about difficult things.
Results and benefits
Staff are able to signpost students to a digital mental health tool that they know is safe and effective. As a result, students are accessing support and getting help with issues earlier.
Anonymous data insights of what their students are talking and worrying about helped the senior leadership teams and counsellors to understand what areas of need are greatest amongst pupils, enabling more targeted interventions.
Students now have a greater understanding of the benefits of peer to peer support and an improved understanding of how important it is to listen to others and offer support.
Through the engagement programme and its content, the number of students using Tellmi for support has continued to increase.
Despite there sometimes being negativity around social media and phones, the Headmaster was delighted by the high uptake of Tellmi, saying “If that’s what works for the students, that works for me.”
Get in touch
If you’d like to know more about Tellmi and how we can help you to support young people, do get in touch.