Mental health and emotional wellbeing

Let's talk mental health event 7 February 2019
Event details, news updates and resources.

The promotion of positive emotional health and wellbeing helps children/young people to understand and express their feelings, build their confidence and emotional resilience, and therefore their capacity to learn.

There is a strong link between emotional health and wellbeing and attainment. Public Health England has produced a document outlining the evidence base behind this.

• Resilience
• Anger management
• Mindfulness
• Healthy body image
• Gender stereotyping
• Bereavement and loss
• Stress and anxiety
• Healthy relationships
• Safeguarding
• Needs analysis
• Mental health awareness and anti- stigma

Resilience

The health improvement team (HIT) has developed a resilience toolkit for primary schools.

This resilience toolkit was designed to support teachers in delivering a robust and comprehensive emotional health and wellbeing (EH and WB) provision to the children in their class and contains tools for identifying vulnerable children, lesson plans and resources aimed at EH and WB education.

Please contact Claire Meade: meadec@ealing.gov.uk for a copy of this toolkit.

The resilience framework (boingboing.org.uk)
Academic resilience resource kit (youngminds.org.uk)

Anger management

• Teach your pupils strategies for dealing with anger and strategies for cooling down using the image of a ‘tucking turtle'
• Visual resources to help children develop controlling down strategies including self-regulation charts, strategy card, feeling records, mood indicators and much more!

Mindfulness

MindSpace offers a range of breathing techniques, yoga exercises and breathing techniques to use in your classroom to help children cool down. It has many useful resources for developing mindfulness in your classroom.

Some of the most useful resources are their introductory mindfulness script, eating chocolate mindfully and 10 steps to listening mindfully.

Healthy body image and gender stereotyping

• Ofsted good practice example from Oak Cottage Primary School offers a detailed action plan as well as lesson plans for all ages based on promoting a healthy body image
• The Dove Confident Me workshops address key topics including social media, peer pressure and strategies for promoting and protecting body confidence. There are five lesson plans suitable for year 5 and 6 pupils.

Gender stereotyping

• Always have a range of resources and videos that challenge gender stereotypes. The video explore what doing something ‘like a girl means’ –
• People like me equips teachers with materials that can show girls that jobs in Science, technology; Engineering and Maths (STEM) are available and open to them. This resources help break the stereotype that these types of jobs are for ‘boys only.’

Bereavement and loss

• Coping with Crisis outlines how teachers and adults can help a child through grief. There is some very practical advice and support for teachers who have children experiencing grief in their classroom
• The Elephants Tea Party was developed by Child Bereavement UK. Once you sign up they will send your school a bereavement and loss resource pack to use as and when you need to with your children
• The Child Bereavement Trust: Information, support and guidance for bereaved families and all those who work with them.

Stress and anxiety

• Young Minds: Find out why and how you can help improve the emotional wellbeing of your staff and teachers to help deliver better support to the pupils in your care.
• MIND: Information produced by MIND on areas of mental health.

Healthy relationships

• North Somerset Council (pdf) have developed a series of lesson plans and activities aimed at KS1 and KS2 pupils that deal with healthy relationships, consent, secret and surprises as well as a whole range of other topics
• Woman’s Aid developed the Expect Respect Toolkit resource aimed at high school children which can be used as a toolkit for addressing teenage relationship abuse
• Saying no poster (word) – A useful poster to help children develop assertiveness.

Safeguarding

• Childline: Information for children and adults on issues of concern to children, including different kinds of abuse, bullying, bereavement, peer pressure, and stepfamilies
• NSPCC: Includes the FULL STOP campaign progress report

Needs analysis

Me and my learning survey

The ‘me and my learning survey’ is a pupil voice survey which can be used to identify vulnerable children or vulnerable groups of children in your school.

This pupil survey is aimed at KS1 and 2 pupils and can be used to identify pupil’s opinions about life in the classroom, life in school and life at home.

The results of this survey can provide impact evidence for Ofsted when completed over a period of time.

It can prove that a school identified a key area of need among their pupils (e.g. not being able to cool down) planned an action and then measured impact.

For the ‘me and my learning pack’ please contact meadec@ealing.gov.uk

If you require any advice or support with mental health and emotional wellbeing in schools, please contact Stacey Payne via email Paynes@ealing.gov.uk

Mental health awareness and anti- stigma

Time to change is an anti-stigma campaign supporting children and adults, including schools to tackle attitudes around mental health.

Their website contains tried-and-tested session plans, blogs and videos, signposting to mental health services, and a huge range of free materials to get young people talking.

Contact

Stacey Payne - Children’s mental health improvement officer
Email: Paynes@ealing.gov.uk