A mentally healthy school is one that adopts a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing. It is widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and wellbeing influences their cognitive development and learning as well as their physical and social health and their mental wellbeing in adulthood.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises that schools should be supported to adopt a comprehensive, ‘whole school’ approach to promoting the social and emotional wellbeing of children and young people. A whole-school approach involves all parts of the school working in partnership with senior leaders, teachers and all school staff, as well as parents, carers and the wider community.
Giving young people a voice
In a government paper on the topic of the whole school approach, ‘enabling student voice to influence decisions’ is one of 8 guiding principles recommended to promote young people’s mental health and wellbeing.
Involving students in decisions that impact them can allow young people to feel part of the school, college and wider community. At an individual level, benefits include helping students to gain belief in their own capabilities, including building their knowledge and skills to make healthy choices and developing their independence. Collectively, benefits include having opportunities to influence decisions, to express their views and to develop strong social networks. To put it simply, student agency gives students voice and often, choice, in how they learn.
Wellbeing and behaviour policies
We spoke with Jo Holmes, the Children, Young People and Families Lead at BACP to understand more about the importance of allowing young people to have a voice when it comes to mental health policies in schools today. Jo said:
“Right now, we’re trying to improve services in schools all the time. Taking a whole school approach that involves the young people themselves is something we strongly believe in. What can sometimes happen however is that this approach to mental health and wellbeing can sometimes be in conflict with a school’s approach to behaviour and discipline.
“Wellbeing and behaviour policies should always be two sides of the same coin, so that it’s not the case that some staff are working purely from a behaviour point of view, and other staff are working purely from a mental health point of view. This needs to be embedded in the training and ethos of the school. Once you’ve got that, young people and their parents and carers can shape the design of those policies to fit their needs”.
Empowering young people to find their voice
There is good evidence to support the association between good mental health and education engagement and academic achievement. The benefits to preventing mental health problems in children and young people from arising, and intervening early where they do, can be significant for schools. For example, it may result in improved attainment, attendance, reductions in behavioural problems, as well as happier, more confident and resilient children and young people.
Jo agrees that sometimes schools need to see beyond the educational imperatives and focus more on the needs of young people first.
“There is sometimes pressure from the school when a young person has a counselling session not to miss certain lessons like English, maths or science. But in some cases having that mental health support is more important. It’s about the students being empowered enough to be able to push back, with the support of their parents and teachers”.
Jo also offered her advice on how young people can find their voice.
“There are lots of ways that we can support young people to get their voices heard. For example, many schools have a schools council system, where pupils can represent their peers at a wider school level. Surveys are another really great method too – they can be answered anonymously and allow young people to express their views on the health and wellbeing support available to them. Often young people will come up with the most amazing ideas of improvements that could be made, and school’s should be open to listening, and acting upon, their feedback”.
Offering a platform for young people
Mental health policies in schools should always be designed with young people, and not for them. As Jo says:
“We can’t do it without them and we shouldn’t do it to them. Young people don’t need a platform to speak on, they just need that platform to be there”.
“The best counselling that takes place is when a young person asks for it themselves. By giving young people the voice and confidence to seek help when they need it, we see real results. At 16-18 years old, young people often know what they need to work on and it’s an ideal age for a counsellor to help make a real difference. The young people are also capable of being a spokesperson for mental health for their fellow pupils, whether that’s through things like writing blogs for the school newspaper, or anonymous stories on the school website – I think all of that is really empowering”.
Whatever the platform might be, it’s clear that there are many opportunities for mental health and wellbeing to be integrated through the school curriculum. Even creative approaches such as allowing young people to write their own plays or create their own short videos can have a positive impact. When schools take this whole school approach they build a supportive environment to set our future generations up on a road to better mental health for life.
mdeducational Foundation places qualified mental health professionals into secondary schools, supporting young people through tailored intervention strategies designed to give them the tools they need to thrive. If you’re interested in working with us to support your young people in their wellbeing, contact us today.
