Dear Parents and Pupils,

The Department of Education has launched a new Text–a–Nurse service to provide young people with advice and support. The initiative is one of a range of resources to support the implementation of the Framework for Children and Young People’s Emotional Health and Wellbeing in Education – see the link below for more details.

The ‘text–a–nurse’ initiative hopes to enable 11 to 19-year-olds in the country to reach out to school nursing teams in a way that they may feel more comfortable doing, or less embarrassing, than alternatives.

The scheme will be manned by a team of school nurses between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays, who will offer support for a range of emotional and general health support. The number for students in the Belfast Trust area is 07507 328290.

Please remember, that the school counselling service remains available to you and you can contact me or any of your teachers and we will make arrangements with our counsellor, Liam McAlorum.

Kind regards

Mr Evans