The rise in the number of mental health issues among young people has been well documented in the press in recent years and anyone who works in a school will tell you that there has been a noticeable increase in the volume of students who are suffering from mental illnesses.
I’ve been a teacher for 12 years now, and a headteacher for two of those and even in the relatively short period of time working as a school leader I have certainly noticed higher numbers of students who need support.
Schools have had to respond to this increasing demand and the stark reality is that in education we are not always qualified or able to provide the level of support required. It is heart-breaking to see a young person who is in dire need of professional support but who is sat on a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) waiting list as long as your arm.
What can schools do in these situations? How can we provide support for our students without having rapid access to educational psychologists and other mental health professionals?
These are genuine concerns that have been important topics of discussion around the senior leadership table at my school in the past two years – and we have had to pull significantly on the support of our pastoral teams to provide proactive care for students who we feel are at risk and who are not able to quickly access professional help.
Schools need to make mental health something we are not scared to talk about. As teachers we are not experts in this area and this can make us feel uncomfortable; we want to be there for our students and support them in any way we can, but we are just simply not qualified to help young people face these challenges.
I am lucky that several students in my school have felt very passionately about this in recent years and have been proactive in raising student and staff awareness through a number of events. These students have cited several reasons as to why they feel increasing numbers are suffering problems. High on their list, they identified the examination system and the pressure to achieve “good” passes. The movement towards terminal exams has created even more of a pressure “bottleneck” for young people too.
Since having this conversation I have reflected on the way we approach examination season at my school. Yes, we push students hard, but we have to balance this with not pushing to the point where it is making them unwell.
As a result, we have provided additional pastoral support in the build up to exams, where students have increased opportunities to speak to both teachers and support staff about their preparations and how they are managing during this stressful time. It is a small thing but our students have appreciated the additional support and the recognition that we understand how challenging this time of year can be.
I have also learned that it is important to keep an eye on members of staff. As schools have become more business-like, the burden of accountability has increased significantly and this has increased the pressure on teachers to deliver better results year-on-year. As a result, combined with workload pressures and educational reform, a perfect storm has been created and this has had a considerable impact on the mental health of teachers.
As a headteacher, I have found that I need to be acutely aware of this.
Equally, I have thought long and hard about how to support my senior leadership team and ensure they too are not having their mental health adversely affected by an environment of high stakes and high accountability. They are the ones at the sharp end of things and I feel that I have a real responsibility in ensuring I am aspirational and challenging while being realistic and pragmatic in my expectations.
Whether you are a teacher, school leader or headteacher, it is incredibly important to understand that many of your students and colleagues may well be suffering with mental health conditions and although you might not be an expert, there are many things you can do to support them – we just need to talk about it.
- SecEd’s headteacher diarist is in his second year of headship at a comprehensive school in the Midlands.