Vital lesson in happiness - improving children's mental health

The idea of promoting happiness in schools and raising awareness about the importance of children's mental health provision is gaining momentum. Chris Bond reports.
Mindfulness: Beverley Wright taking part in a meditation session at Clifton with Rawcliffe Primary School.Mindfulness: Beverley Wright taking part in a meditation session at Clifton with Rawcliffe Primary School.
Mindfulness: Beverley Wright taking part in a meditation session at Clifton with Rawcliffe Primary School.

The idea of sitting and doing nothing at school is, on the face of it, anathema to what most parents expect from their child’s education.

But there is a growing belief that taking time out from studies can be a useful way of boosting children’s mental health and help tackle issues such as anxiety and low self-esteem.

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While reading, writing and arithmetic, or the 3Rs as they’re popularly known, have long been viewed as the building blocks of a solid education, the mental wellbeing of children has tended to be overlooked.

Rebecca McGuinn from the Ebor Academy Trust.Rebecca McGuinn from the Ebor Academy Trust.
Rebecca McGuinn from the Ebor Academy Trust.

However, attitudes are changing. Mindfulness and meditation are just a couple of the new “positive education” methods starting to gain traction in schools. The belief is that by introducing these techniques at an early age they promote resilience in youngsters and help them live healthier lives psychologically.

The issue of children’s happiness has been thrust into the spotlight in the wake of a string of reports about self-harm, suicide attempts and other mental health-related problems.

For boys aged nine to 15, suicide is now reportedly the second most common cause of death. It is a troubling statistic and one that reflects wider concerns.

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A report published by the Association of School and College Leaders last year said that 65 per cent of head teachers struggle to get mental health services for pupils, while more than three-quarters of teachers questioned said they’d seen an increase in self-harm or suicidal thoughts among students.

Rebecca McGuinn from the Ebor Academy Trust.Rebecca McGuinn from the Ebor Academy Trust.
Rebecca McGuinn from the Ebor Academy Trust.

Mental health provision for young people is being addressed more urgently and last week the Prime Minister announced that every secondary school was to be offered mental health training, teaching people how to identify symptoms and help those developing a mental health issue.

Some schools are already taking the initiative. Beverley Wright, deputy headteacher at Clifton with Rawcliffe Primary School, in York, says improving children’s mental health is crucial.

“We believe if children aren’t ready to learn because they’re struggling emotionally then it becomes difficult for them to do well academically. We believe happy children have a better chance of becoming successful children and that’s why we see their emotional development as being just as important as their academic development.”

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The school has introduced a number of initiatives specifically focusing on children’s mental health that have become an integral part of their education.

“The earlier you intervene the better because you’re giving them tools for life,” says Wright. “We concentrate a lot on resilience and mindfulness because we feel it’s important how children bounce back and that failure is part of learning.”

They have 10 emotional support assistants who help any children that teachers have identified as having an emotional problem whether it’s to do with bullying, issues at home, or exam concerns.

The school also has two mentoring programmes and is in the process of producing an emotional wellbeing toolkit. “We’ve looked at academic anxiety, anger management and body image and we’re working with a local theatre company. They’ve put together a film with the children about what it is they worry about in school and we’re then able to talk to them about it.

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“This isn’t something woolly, it’s a serious part of our curriculum,” says Wright. “This isn’t us making up the issues it’s about what we see and then being able to do something about it. For instance body image can be an issue in Years Five and Six, particularly among girls, and we try and help children talk about this and any concerns they might have.”

The school doesn’t get extra funding for mental health provision but has decided to invest in something it believes will benefit the pupils for the rest of their lives.

So are mental issues more prevalent these days, or are we just getting better at spotting the warning signs? “We’ve created more of an environment where children are comfortable talking about these things. But there are more stresses, particularly around anxiety.

“There’s pressure to not fail. We try not to put them under that pressure but there’s an external pressure from league tables and how well their friends are doing and children feel this.”

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The problem schools face is in a system that revolves around tangible results, measuring a child’s wellbeing isn’t easy. “It’s difficult to measure in terms of data but what see is children who had anxieties and because they can talk about them they’re then able to deal with them. And for us the results are that our children seem happy.”

Rebecca McGuinn, pastoral manager for York-based Ebor Academy Trust, believes self-worth is important for a child’s development.

“It’s vital that we work with children on an emotional level in order to make sure that they feel good about who they are,” she says. “We want the children in our schools to not just pass national tests but be the best human being that they can be, and be able to positively contribute to the world around them.

“Helping a child to take personal responsibility is one of the greatest lessons we can teach. Ensuring a child feels comfortable in their own skin builds resilience for life, and that goes way beyond the school setting.”

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But McGuinn admits she is concerned at the scale of the mental health challenge in this country. “Public Health England have reported some frightening statistics in relation to teenage mental health and it’s my view that we are facing a national crisis around mental health at all levels.”

However, she welcomes attempts by the Government to address problems which she says schools are seeing on a daily basis. “From a primary school point of view, some of our children are living with parental mental illness, many children are acting as young carers. Equally, many children are exposed to traumatic events that negatively impacts on their wellbeing.

“I feel that the work we do around teaching children how to articulate their thoughts and feelings is vital in attempting to recover this epidemic around poor mental health.

“We teach children that it’s OK to be sad, or feel anxious and that they inevitably will encounter conflict at some point.

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“More importantly, we teach the children how to safely share those feelings. We don’t want children to grow into teenagers with baggage and nowhere to offload that baggage.”

With some schools already taking the initiative, should mental health provision be an integral part of the national curriculum? McGuinn believes it ought to be.

Schools focus so much on what will look attractive on paper to Ofsted, but if the time and permission to work on a child’s wellbeing was recognised then the learning would flourish as a result.”

Tackling mental health in schools

Leeds Beckett University announced this month that it has struck a new partnership to help train teachers in how to support schoolchildren and staff with mental health problems.

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The university is to work with the Stronger Minds Community Interest Company organisation to transform the practice of trainee teachers and those at partnering schools.

Professor Damien Page, dean of the school at Leeds Beckett, said the partnership would address an important issue. “Half of all people who suffer mental illness experience the onset of symptoms by the age of 14; and so educators need not only to know about mental health in children but to be able to respond compassionately to this growing problem.”

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