VIEWS & OPINION
Mental health should not disrupt learning
Comment by SAM WARNES,
founder of EDLounge
The shocking reality of primary school stress
Comment by
DR NICK SMITH, principal at Oxford Home Schooling
A unique platform that gives students who struggle with mainstream education the opportunity to access learning, explains why traditional and mainstream education may not be effective for all young people and explores suitable alternatives that can accommodate pupils with mental health issues. Pupils with good health and wellbeing are likely to achieve better academically than those with poorer health and wellbeing (Public Health England, 2014), so how do we make education accessible, so every child can reach his or her full potential?
Students struggling at school must still be given the opportunity to access learning, but given that traditional and mainstream education may not be effective for all young people, what alternatives might accommodate pupils with mental health issues?
Mental health is a personal journey for everyone and interventions of a one-size-fits-all mentality will not work for all students and our approach should reflect this.
We must continue to educate ourselves about mental health, and the elements of traditional and mainstream education that could be the most triggering for students struggling with their mental health. For example, anxiety may manifest itself in some as a fear of large crowds, and a busy classroom could prove to be overwhelming. The child may start to miss school and lose out on vital information for their studies, meaning that their workload piles up, likely causing further stress. Others may fall into a deep depression and find it difficult to motivate themselves to leave the house on a daily basis. In addition to this, social interaction is also a key part of a child’s development and less time spent in the class could lead to further long-lasting ramifications.
Creating a safe space for students
Virtual classrooms and online learning platforms are a great way to ensure those experiencing difficulties with their mental health have a safe space to access the curriculum, without needing to attend mainstream education fulltime.
These platforms give teachers an insight into individual student performance and progression, and also allow for attendance monitoring. This means that if a student begins to show signs of disengagement, whether that’s by incomplete tasks or missing lessons, the teacher can spot the signs early and discreetly inform the appropriate carer to flag any concerns and develop an action plan.
Where the student is concerned, an online learning environment can be a way to complete tasks and attend lessons away from the anxieties that a traditional setting may trigger. A particularly beneficial element of virtual classrooms is that they don’t have to be separate to a traditional setting. They can be used to complement a conventional environment by simply reducing the days spent in a physical classroom, allowing students to re-integrate at their own speed, depending on their mental health and maintaining that important social interaction with peers.
Although dealing with mental health issues should no doubt be left to medical professionals, as educators there are ways we can support our students so that their learning is not disrupted. Showing students that it’s ok to talk about mental health is an important step in tackling the stigma around the topic, but it is especially impactful if we can then show them that we will listen to their needs and work with them to provide alternatives for them to reach their full potential.
24
www.education-today.co.uk
Many of us look back on our time at primary school as something idyllic. Lots of parents, though, are starting to see their children showing signs of stress that they wouldn’t expect in children so young.
The UK has one of the most demanding education systems of any European country. At five years old, children in the UK start school a year earlier than in most other continental countries. In Northern Ireland, they even start at four.
Given that children will spend around 10,500 hours of their lives in school before they’re 16 years old, it’s important that their stress levels – particularly at primary school – are kept as low as possible.
That’s why we recently did some research into exam-related stress among children of all ages – and the results prove the point perfectly.
Exactly one third of parents of primary school pupils said that exams are making their child stressed. It’s a very stark figure, given that 37% of parents of secondary school children said the same. Absorb that for a second. That means that almost as many pupils aged 5-11 are showing the same noticeable signs of exam pressure as GCSE students are. The same teenagers who were – rightly – featured in several news reports around results day in late August, explaining how stressful they find exams. It’s a figure that is mirrored in parents’ feelings about how much pressure children are actively put under to perform well in their exams. Two in five (or 40%) of primary school parents think too much pressure is put on kids to get good results . For secondary school parents, it was 46%. In both cases, that’s a huge proportion of the population who feel that there must be a better way of doing things.
Our research also looked at how much homework children are given. One quarter of parents said their children are given too much, which may not be a shock to many. What is perhaps more surprising, though, is that more than one in ten primary school children (13%) spend over five hours a week on it, when the figures are broken down by education level.
It will, undoubtedly, be a shock to many to find out how much pressure young children are now being put under at school – however unintentional it might be. Yes, primary school is as much about learning as secondary school is but, to reach the best of their potential, young children need to be able to feel comfortable and happy. Otherwise, the whole exercise can be counter- productive.
A large proportion of children find the classroom itself a stressful setting, thanks to a wide range of factors from both inside and outside school. A traumatic experience in school can stay with people for many years into their future. It’s one of the key reasons that we see so many parents opting for home education. As one of the best ways for parents to keep a better handle on their child’s mental state, it can prove to be useful for many families.
November 2017
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