Student wellbeing: Emotion coaching in schools

Many teachers will agree that social emotional and mental health (SEMH) and the wellbeing of pupils and staff have always been an important aspect of education. The importance of SEMH is increasing, with research suggesting a rising number of adolescents with mental health difficulties (Hagell et al 2013).

Over the years there have been a number of social and emotional learning programmes and initiatives aimed at adolescents. These have variously targeted individual pupils, small groups and whole schools e.g. SEAL, TaMHS and Healthy Schools. Evaluations from these programmes have been mixed (Gutman & Schoon 2013) and a unique range of barriers to implementing programmes to address SEMH in secondary schools have been identified, e.g. reduced quality pupil-teacher relationships (Lendrum et al 2012 and Wigelsworth et al 2013).