mental health | Schools Week

Pupil wellbeing ‘dashboards’ to help school support

Schools in Manchester will be able to use a pupil wellbeing dashboard to see how well their students are coping in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. A £900,000 pioneering programme, led by the University of Manchester and the mental health charity Anna Freud Centre, aims to survey between 30-50,000 year 8 and 10 pupils […]

7 school policies to solve the Covid children mental health crisis

Aspiring school leaders should be encouraged to work in alternative provision settings before stepping up so they are better prepared to support children with mental and emotional health needs, a new report has said. The Education Policy Institute has published a new study into the mental health and wellbeing of young people, including how it […]

One in five schools shun May’s mental health scheme

One in five secondary schools did not take part in a flagship government-funded scheme to train staff as mental health first-aiders. In 2017, Theresa May launched an initiative to offer mental health awareness training to every secondary school over the next three years to “make a real difference to children’s lives”. What is most needed […]

Mental health teams overlook excluded pupils

A new government initiative to support pupils’ mental health seems to be overlooking many excluded children. Research by the Anna Freud Centre and the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) shows that more than four in ten mental health “trailblazer” areas are not working with alternative provision schools, meaning some of the most vulnerable children could […]

Coronavirus: Majority of teachers’ mental health declines

More than half of teachers say their mental health has declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, with the lack of timely government guidance cited as their biggest challenge. A new report from Education Support assessing the impact of coronavirus on education professionals’ mental health found 52 per cent of teachers felt their mental health and wellbeing […]

DfE to measure school staff happiness under new wellbeing charter

The government has committed to monitoring how happy school staff are, and will publish findings alongside a new wellbeing charter. The Department for Education has committed to implementing all seven recommendations put forward by the expert group on education staff wellbeing (see below). That includes pledges to measure the wellbeing of staff at regular intervals […]

Keeping schools mentally healthy: sometimes young people just need to talk

Sometimes young people just want to talk, says Lisa Fathers, who explains how the devolved administration in Greater Manchester has trained up teachers and peer mentors to provide mental health support in schools The recent figures from the Children’s Commissioner highlighting that a third of areas in England are reducing real-terms spending on vital mental […]

Exclusion or poor mental health: which comes first?

Children excluded from school are more likely to have poor mental health than their peers, but the direction of causality is hotly debated, says Tamsin Ford How much can and should we do to prevent exclusions? How do we balance the needs of the student who struggles to cope in school with those of their […]

Hinds to announce wellbeing focus at ASCL conference

Damian Hinds has commissioned his fifth advisory group since taking office – this time looking at boosting school teacher and leader wellbeing. The education secretary will tell the annual conference of school leaders’ union ASCL today the group will lead the government’s efforts to look at “how teachers and school leaders can be better supported […]