SEND
Why mental wellbeing should be at the heart of SEND education
In SEND education, supporting mental health is as vital as academic progress. ANN-MARIE OLIVER from Ethos Academy Trust outlines some of their key strategies for creating a culture of nurturing and emotional support for both pupils and staff.
Mental wellbeing is important for all children and young people, but in a SEND context it becomes even more crucial. For children already needing support, any mental health issues can become yet another barrier to them thriving and enjoying learning. As well as impacting engagement and concentration in the classroom, poor mental health can affect relationships within school, school attendance and, longer term, their ability to fulfil their potential.
That is why at Ethos we place wellbeing at the core of everything we do. Our curriculum has been constructed with a focus on personal development, PSHE and RSE and on preparing our young people for adulthood. We strive to create safe academic environments where children feel supported and understood, and our subject network groups are a platform for staff to come together and share best practice around mental health needs.
At the heart of effective and nurturing mental health support is positive, consistent communication – with children, with staff, and with families. We recognise that with our pupils, all behaviour is a form of communication, and it is up to us as educators to listen, to understand and to support. This means taking a highly personalised approach with each child.
Every single member of our staff plays a vital part in providing this support – but it is our role to support their mental wellbeing too. This begins with a culture of coaching, with all senior leaders trained in coaching techniques. Every line manager completes a wellness action plan with their employees in order to recognise any triggers and support with overcoming barriers. This proactive approach helps provide a healthier working environment for staff.
Here are some of the specific initiatives our academies have implemented to support children, families and staff and create a positive environment for everyone. Children:
• Our team aims to create a sense of safety and belonging and meet the pupils where they are on their journey through mental wellbeing. Nurture breakfasts allow for check-ins through the zones of regulation and blob trees, encouraging staff and pupils to share how they feel and provide co-regulation when needed.
• We have highly anxious pupils who are reluctant to attend school. Our personalised approach, including residential trips, forest school and The Duke of Edinburgh Award, has allowed many children to achieve success and improve confidence.
• All of our academies use a Restorative Practice which focuses on building relationships, resolving conflicts and promoting a sense of community and belonging among pupils, staff and parents/carers. This approach helps to create a supportive and inclusive environment where pupils feel valued and contribute positively to their school community.
Families:
• We run workshops for parents to build relationships with the school and their child, and also provide support with funding applications, understanding behaviours, creating positive routines at home and how they can secure help from additional services.
• We work hard to build relationships with external agencies to refer for enhanced support if required.
Staff:
• Throughout the day, staff are empowered to be proactive and reactive to situations that may arise and to support pupils to regulate. This could include enhanced mentoring, bespoke transition plans, the use of social stories or sensory regulation sessions.
• We have an employee wellbeing service to support staff
• We have a Mental Health First Aider in each school, and together they make up a Trust Mental Health and Wellbeing Network.
• CPD for staff includes sessions around child development, understanding trauma and insecure attachment and the impact that this can have on a child’s brain development and mental wellbeing – all with strategies to support.
For more information about Ethos Academy Trust visit
https://www.eat.uk.com/ 30
www.education-today.co.uk
Mental health in schools – isn’t it time to go back to the drawing board? EMMA SANDERSON, Managing Director of
Options Autism, a specialist provider of education for neurodivergent pupils and those with complex needs, discusses the ongoing mental health crisis in schools.
The continuing decline in children and young people’s mental health increases the pressure on schools. Poor wellbeing is placing immense strain on our education system. Statistics from the NHS, suggest that in 2023, 20.9% (1 in 5) children and young people aged 8-16 years, struggled with their mental health - a rise of nearly 8% since 2017. With over half of children with special educational needs (SEN) and 70% of autistic children having a mental health need.
The increase in pupils absent from school goes hand in hand with the mental health crisis. Three years on from lockdown, and persistent absence remains consistently high, 2.5 times higher than pre-pandemic. Many children are experiencing long delays in accessing specialist mental health services, exacerbating their mental health issues and increasing their risk of emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), where pupils are absent, due to anxiety or emotional challenges linked to school. As a result, pupils are missing out on valuable learning opportunities, which could be avoided if timely mental health assessments and interventions were accessible.
Recently, there has been a push for mainstream schools to become more inclusive, however without resources, specialised training and skills, will staff in these schools be fully equipped to support these children? Without planning and investment, inclusion will not only mean pupils with SEN are further disadvantaged, but may also impact the wellbeing of teachers and staff, already at an all-time low. In 2020, the previous UK government introduced educational mental health practitioners (EMHPs) in schools. Employed by the NHS, EMHPs work in schools to help pupils manage common mental health problems. Dedicated support like this is hugely important, but according to the Education Policy Institute (EPI) presently only one third of schools currently benefit from this service. It’s not acceptable for mental health support to be a postcode lottery - all children who need access to an EMHP should have the opportunity.
It’s also crucial that EMHPs aren’t seen as a replacement for clinical services or diagnostic assessments. Research suggests that a one-size-fits-all approach does not meet the needs for some neurodiverse pupils, those with SEN, or pupils whose mental health problems have resulted from traumatic life events.
As educators, we cannot address waiting lists nor find more clinicians, however, perhaps we could change our approach? What if mental wellbeing became as critical a component of a school’s curriculum as the core subjects? We could help build pupil’s resilience and regulation, and support them with strategies to manage their anxieties. Teachers need to be given the time and opportunity to develop new and innovative ways to support and educate our children, who, since the pandemic, are now compounded in complexity.
For further information please visit
www.outcomesfirstgroup.co.uk
November 2024
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