A SCHOOL in Rubery has received a grant from the Big Lottery Fund to support its mental health awareness project.

Holywell Primary and Nursery School in School Road has been awarded £1,900 for its Butterfly Effect scheme, which aims to help pupils cope with mental health issues.

Headteacher of Holywell Angela Jones said: "Each school has different priorities that emerge each year, and ours is writing, the arts and mental health. This project will involve all strands coming together and will involve authors and different artists and workshops coming in and different illustrators. Then this will all lead up to a large mental health showcase.

"The money from the Big Lottery Fund will go towards our 'mindfulness sessions' - so we have identified pupils across the school who would benefit from the sessions. Some have mental health issues, some are on the spectrum and others have experienced trauma during their lives.

"A company called Mindful Beginnings will be coming in to the school and training staff before we have eight sessions with each group of pupils. These will help pupils to become more resilient and learn how to cope and manage mental health challenges."

Around 40 pupils have been selected to take part in the mindfulness sessions at the end of October, but it is hoped that the project will later be rolled out to the rest of the school's 450 students, with pupils from the previous sessions acting as mentors.