Shenstone Lodge School – The Brades Lodge, under the Executive Headteacher Neil Toplass, is a secondary special school based in Oldbury that caters for students who experience Social Emotional and Mental Heath difficulties. Generally the students have been disengaged from education and lack the motivation to succeed.  Our main priority is to re-engage them so that when they leave us they are able to gain meaningful employment.  We have a great success rate with 100% leaving us with a placement for education or training in 2016.

This project was devised by Luke Cato, a Behaviour Support Officer; as part of his role at the school. He is designated to work with our students to re-engage them with education and learning.  He does this in a myriad of ways but most importantly he tackles issues that they face on a daily basis.  As Mental Health issues are in the public arena presently he decided to use his film making skills to put the points across in a medium that all can access. The students have learnt what it is like to suffer from Mental Health issues and the impact these have on families and friends; they have interviewed people suffering with difficulties and talked about their own experiences in open and frank discussions.

Having used Cineworld, Wolverhampton for our previous forray into film, they once again kindly agreed for us to use one of their screens.  We invited other schools, stakeholders and dignitaries to the premiere and had over 200 viewers.

The Brades Lodge would like to thank everyone involved in the day for making it a success and a memory that the students will have forever. 

Thank you.

Acting Head of School

Simon Hobbs