SEND
Mental health in our classrooms: notice, listen and act
Dr FREYA SPICER-WHITE, Chief Clinical Officer at Outcomes First Group, shares her insights
While World Mental Health Day (on 10th October) is an opportunity to reflect, mental health cannot be something we think about for one day each year.
In 2023, 20.3% of children aged 8-16 had a probable mental health condition, compared with 12.5% in 2017. Those aged between 11-16 years old showed the highest rates. Children with a probable mental health condition are seven times more likely to miss more than 15 days of school, while 11-16 year-olds were around five times more likely to experience in- person bullying than peers unlikely to have a mental health condition.
Most starkly, PAPYRUS UK reports that more than 200 teenagers die by suicide each year in the UK.
Recognising distress early is vital – but mental health needs might not always look as we expect. Low mood difficulties might not always look like sadness. We might see a young person becoming more withdrawn or less interested in things they previously enjoyed. But we might equally see irritability, anger, increased movement, difficulties concentrating, conflict with peers, perfectionism, frequent physical complaints or increasing difficulties coming into school.
For neurodivergent young people, we need to be careful not to interpret everything through a behavioural lens. A student who appears ‘defiant’ may be overwhelmed, or their avoidance may be communicating their anxiety. Increased dysregulation may tell us that demands have exceeded that young person’s capacity to cope.
Some young people become extremely good at masking their distress. The student who is achieving, smiling and apparently ‘coping’ may still be struggling significantly. Rather than asking “What is wrong?”, it is important to remain curious: “What might this young person be communicating, and what has changed for them?”
Listen. Create opportunities for young people to talk without immediately trying to fix the problem. Take their concerns seriously. You do not need to have all the answers; sometimes being a trusted adult who listens is enormously powerful.
Observe. Notice changes from that individual young person’s usual presentation. Look beyond behaviour to patterns in attendance, friendships, engagement, regulation, sleepiness, anxiety or withdrawal.
Record. Write down concerns factually and sensitively. Patterns over time can help schools, families and professionals understand what a young person is experiencing.
Refer. Teachers are not expected to become mental health clinicians. Share concerns through your school’s safeguarding and pastoral systems and, where appropriate, support referral to your local CAMHS team. If there are concerns about immediate safety or suicide, act urgently through safeguarding procedures.
Above all, young people need to know that struggling with their mental health does not make them difficult, weak or a problem. Our school teams can help by noticing, remaining curious, listening and making sure the young person knows they do not have to manage it alone.
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www.education-today.co.uk
Why place matters for successful SEND improvement
LIZ MURRAY, SEND Director at Supporting Education Group (SEG), discusses why SEND training must take local context into account if it’s to be a success.
When I returned north in 2016 after more than two decades teaching in London – where the schools had been transformed by the highly successful London Challenge school improvement programme – I brought with me a set of assumptions about effective school improvement. I assumed the constraints facing schools were broadly similar across the country. I assumed that the approaches we used in one place would largely transfer to another and that if we shared the right
research, designed the right tools and provided the right training, good practice would follow.
I soon realised my assumptions were incorrect. Working in schools from Blackpool to Bradford, I had access to the same evidence- informed research, professional development, frameworks and practical tools as down south, but they didn’t always land in the way I expected. The problem was not lack of ambition or willingness. Rather, the conditions needed to implement improvement were often much more fragile.
My thinking about school improvement changed when I understood that community history, local employment, transport, housing and access to health and specialist services all mattered, as did the strength of local networks and the opportunities available to the adults who work in schools.
Schools that progressed usually had leaders who knew their communities well, understood the roots of disadvantage in that place, worked to build trust with families and created support around children. They also recognised that inclusion had to be part of the curriculum; leadership and culture and couldn’t sit at the edge of the school.
This is why I believe the success of the government’s £200 million SEND CPD programme, which began rolling out in September with the launch of new training materials, will be determined not only by the quality of its content, but by the sophistication of its implementation.
A national programme should establish a common understanding of inclusion, adaptive teaching and SEND support. But a national curriculum for professional development shouldn’t mean a uniform approach to implementation.
The most effective programme should combine a strong national evidence-informed core with regional case studies, implementation support and diagnostic tools that help leaders apply learning within their own context. At SEG, leaders looking to take the next step can join the waiting list for SEG’s evaluation tool, SEND Lens, or explore specialist apprenticeship pathways through SkillsHub. The government’s significant investment is an opportunity to establish what every educator should know about inclusion. I’m very optimistic that it will help to narrow those inequalities, as long as everyone involved pays close attention to the conditions in which the learning is applied.
October 2026
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