Whole-school approaches to good mental health

I started teaching because I love learning: the initial intrigue, finding new information, the steep learning curve and the sense of achievement as everything starts to fall into place.

I wanted to spread this enthusiasm for learning. I believe that educating the next generation will transform historically deprived communities – this is how our generation can make an impact.

Throughout my teaching journey, I have worked with some very deprived young people. I’m currently working in Bradford, where 62 per cent of my school’s pupils are Ever6FSM, and 84 per cent speak English as an additional language.

Early in my career, it became clear to me that many of the children I taught were battling with a world of issues that needed to be overcome before they could give their learning the attention it really needed. I, like many other teachers, found myself adopting a whole range of new roles in addition to that of teacher: agony aunt, behaviour therapist, wellbeing advisor – the list goes on. Teaching has become so much more than imparting subject knowledge and to me, this is what makes it so rewarding.