Furthermore, 82% of secondary teachers say they have seen increasing levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among students, including low mood and disengagement.
The research has come from the Anna Freud Centre and the Early Intervention Foundation and coincides with the launch of a free resource for schools. The Classroom Wellbeing Toolkit offers teaching staff a range of evidence-based and practical strategies to support secondary-age students.
It covers five broad areas: building supportive relationshipss; creating a classroom environment where all students feel they belong; general advice for promoting good mental health; how to respond to stress, low mood, and anxiety; and preventing bullying, cyber-bullying, and sexual harassment.
Specific topics include how to help your students talk about their feelings and how to prevent sexual harassment in your classroom.
SecEd Webinar: Practical advice and tips for how schools can support students struggling with anxiety will be the focus of SecEd’s next best practice webinar. The free to view hour-long webinar will take place at 4pm on Tuesday, November 8, and will feature a panel of expert educators and wellbeing specialists. For details and to sign up, visit https://bit.ly/seced-anxietywebinar
Rahi Popat, pastoral support officer at Keyham Lodge School in Leicester, has been involved in the creation of the toolkit. He explained: “We have seen a huge rise in our children and young people experiencing a variety of different mental health difficulties over the last few years. We have seen students with increased anxiety, low mood and self-harm.
“The resource allows for professionals to pick which areas works best for their students and tailor it to what is happening in their school community. It helps fuel connection and helps build stronger and positive relationships with students. We want all teachers to feel empowered, enriched and excited at the prospect of using such a valuable piece of work in their setting.”
The research, which was conducted by Teacher Tapp in August, and which involved more than 5,000 secondary school teachers, found that 40% of teachers do not feel confident when helping their students with their mental health, while only 36% say they have received specific training in this area.
Recent NHS analysis shows that 17% (roughly one in six) children aged six to 16 in England have a probable mental health disorder. It is a similar picture for 17 to 19-year-olds.
Jaime Smith, director of the Anna Freud Centre’s Schools’ Division, said: “It’s essential that all school staff, no matter their role or stage of their career, have the appropriate training to be able to support their students.
“This toolkit is not asking teachers to be mental health professionals, or to add to already overstretched workloads, but instead focuses on simple strategies that can be employed by all classroom teachers as part of their everyday practice and which aim to enhance the quality of the classroom environment and staff-student relationships.”
Monday this week (October 10) marked World Mental Health Day. Research highlighted by YoungMinds to coincide with the event show that more than one-third of young people say they experience stigma and discrimination when seeking mental health support, with 51% of those surveyed saying they were embarrassed or ashamed to reach out for treatment or support.
YoungMinds is currently promoting its End the Wait campaign which is calling on the government to end the crisis in young people’s mental health, including by introducing an early support hub in every community, offering easy access for young people without referrals or appointments. The charity also wants to see more funding for schools to support mental health work.
- The toolkit is available via www.annafreud.org and a free event discussing how schools can use the new toolkit is scheduled to take place online on November 3. Visit https://bit.ly/3SVyJy2