Earlscliffe is proud to celebrate receiving the Bronze Mental Health Champion School Award from One Goal, just months after being named the winner of the 2025 Boarding Schools Association (BSA) Award for Supporting International Students.
Together, these achievements recognise our deep commitment to nurturing emotional wellbeing and offering world-class pastoral care tailored to the unique needs of our international and diverse student body.
At Earlscliffe, wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do. As a thriving international boarding school with students from all over the world, our community is built on shared experiences, mutual respect, and cultural diversity. Our students don’t just study together, they live and grow together. That closeness brings incredible rewards, but also a deep responsibility to support one another emotionally.
As part of Earlscliffe’s enrichment programme, last academic year, we launched our first cohort of student Wellbeing Champions. A pioneering group of students who trained in mental health awareness, active listening, and safe peer support strategies. Their mission? To become approachable, informed peers who could offer support, reduce stigma, and promote open conversations around mental health and wellbeing.
Filippo, Lia, Alessandro, Freya, Jules, and Orlando quickly became trusted voices in our school community. As part of a wider Wellbeing Pyramid, their work complemented our Senior Tutors and Boarding staff to create a multi-layered, responsive support network.
This academic year, Alessandro and Jules are now stepping into leadership roles, helping to mentor and train our new cohort of Wellbeing Champions, building a self-sustaining model of student support. They reflected, “Mental health is such an important topic for teenagers. When your mental health is strong, it’s easier to reach your goals, follow your dreams, and just feel happier in everyday life. Being a Wellbeing Champion helped us grow in confidence, learn how to really listen, communicate better, and it feels good knowing we can support others.”
This award from One Goal recognises not just the success of the initial programme, but our commitment to growing it.
In 2025/26, we are expanding the initiative further by launching a Wellbeing & Mental Health Committee, a student-staff collaboration focused on embedding wellbeing deeper into our school culture. New developments also include more parent-focused guidance, trauma-informed training for staff, and improved impact measurement using tools such as CPOMS data and student feedback.
Both awards reflect our belief that great pastoral care must be sensitive to culture, language, identity, and the unique challenges that come with living and learning far from home.
Wellbeing That Goes Beyond Awards
This work is about more than awards (although we are proud of them).
It’s about building a boarding community where students feel safe, understood, and able to care for each other. Where international students are not just welcomed, but empowered.
And where wellbeing isn’t a policy or a programme, it’s something lived daily.
Introducing Earlscliffe’s Wellbeing Champions for 2025/6 (clockwise from top left): Alessandro – Vice President, Jules – President, Kayla – Wellbeing Sports Ambassador, Nehir – Wellbeing Ambassador, Dasha – Graphic Designer & Content Creator, Funmi – Events Ambassador.
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