Movember at St Cuthbert's

There was some impressive facial hair on display when sixth formers at a Newcastle school took part in ‘Movember’ to raise awareness of men’s health issues.

The Year 12 and 13 students at St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School were also joined by members of staff, with many growing moustaches over the course of November in support of the annual campaign.

Movember was launched in 2003 in aid of men’s mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. From an initial 30 ‘mo bros’, the initiative is now supported by over 6 million men across the UK each year, and has funded more than 1,320 men's health projects.

“Men are facing a mental health crisis,” said David Swindells, Deputy Head at St Cuthbert’s, which is a member of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust.

“In the summer of 2023, we held a Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) Synod with our sixth formers and asked them what they would like to go into their new, bespoke PSHE Curriculum. The most common theme was mental health.”

“When the curriculum was constructed, I decided to link a unit of work to Movember to be taught in November,” he continued.

“These lessons are also linked to the Sixth Form assembly programme, with a launch assembly at the start of the month, and a celebration assembly at the end of the month.

“Staff and students are encouraged to grow a moustache to raise awareness and start conversations about men’s mental health.”

There was also an awards ceremony, where the ‘Garay Gong’ and ‘Bolam d’Or’ (both named after members of staff at St Cuthbert’s) were presented to the best staff and student moustaches respectively, with this year’s winners announced as Dean Miller, who raised over £80 for Movember with his form class, and Alan Ziradasht in Year 13.

The caring and supportive ethos at St Cuthbert’s was recognised by the 2024 Catholic Schools Inspection Report  which described pastoral care at the school as ‘exemplary’, while a recent OFSTED inspection referenced the ‘comprehensive pastoral support’.

“Aside from strengthening community bonds, as an all-boys school, we are passionate about issues facing young men,” added Mr Swindells. 

“Young men often feel they have to deal with societal pressure to ‘man up’ and not show or talk about their emotions. We see it as our duty to help challenge this both to our young men and to wider society in general.

“The in-school support we offer includes caring pastoral staff, a safe-space room, counselling services and more.

“We teach the boys the Movember tool of ‘ALEC’ – Ask, Listen, Encourage action, and Check in. We give the boys sentence starters and scenarios to support them to ‘have a convo, save a bro’.

“Student voice indicates that the boys feel fully supported, know who to speak to in school for support, and are more confident not only in supporting each other, but also in identifying when they need help and how to seek it.”