MENTAL HEALTH
Prepared for life Seeking to support pupils’ long-term mental health, our schools are taking positive steps to boost wellbeing and teach coping mechanisms W hile growing up has always had its challenges, it’s a uniquely tough life’s normal stresses, realise their abilities, work (or learn) well and contribute to their community. While the adults in their lives
time to be a child today. In addition to all the traditional pressures, whether that’s navigating friendship issues or coping with academic pressure – both among the factors that can have an impact on mental health – young people are increasingly concerned about potentially existential problems. One survey from VotesforSchools and the UK Committee for UNICEF, for example, found that 95% of children were worried about climate change – and that was in 2021, long before the heatwaves of our most recent summer. Mental health matters because of the effect it can have on every area of life. According to the World Health Organisation, it is a basic human right – positive mental health allows people to cope with
seek to protect children as far as they can, there is a limit to how effective this can be, especially with older children. The concern, then, is how to support children both effectively and realistically – something that schools in our area are fully geared up to do. With children’s wellbeing now a year-round focus, schools are making mental health an integral part of their educational offering. Quite right too, given the stark figures, with an estimated one in six children and young people likely to be suffering from poor mental health. Schools have a hugely important role to play, spotting when children may be struggling and helping them develop healthy coping mechanisms. And it is
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