Best Practice

Wellbeing: The words that go unsaid

Picking up on changes in our pupils can help teachers and school staff to spot emerging mental health or wellbeing issues. Dr Pooky Knightsmith advises

How can we tell when a pupil needs our support? It’s a simple question and the most obvious answer is if they ask for our help. However, often the voice which most needs to be heard is the quietest.

These are the children who keep me awake at night, these are the children who slide through life so quietly that we might not pick up on their needs.

At worst, they are the children who make headlines when they take their lives for no apparent reason; at best they are children who continue to just about manage and find a way to safely navigate their issues or a means of accessing support eventually.

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