Friday, 5 April was ‘Gumboot Friday’ an initiative created by Mike King and the I Am Hope Foundation in order to raise awareness for all those suffering with mental illness and to raise money for free counselling. It is based off the idea that having depression feels like walking through mud and wearing gumboots for a day symbolises putting yourself in their shoes.

Rutherford decided to get behind this campaign in every way possible as depression and anxiety have become such a common issue in our society and definitely within young people. We had a mufti day to raise funds and encouraged everyone to wear their gumboots to school.

The prefects ran a few activities at lunchtime like gumboot throwing, a gumboot ring toss and quizzes to start up the conversation surrounding mental health and how we can help those around us struggling, and also to have some fun.

The PSSP team created a space where everyone could share things that make them happy and also share any encouraging messages they had towards anyone who deals with a mental illness. The aim of all of these activities was to hopefully create a better understanding of the effects of mental illness, for everyone to show their support/raise funds for I Am Hope and (without taking away the seriousness of this issue) have some fun.