Adopting a whole school/college approach to wellbeing
All schools and colleges are under pressure to show how they are increasing pupil attainment and achievement. Centre to being able to drive improvements for children and young people are settings developing a whole school approach to social, emotional wellbeing.
Schools through the SEND Partnership Board Projects emphasised how important it was to accept that the child/family has challenges and is part of the whole school community. The expectation that reasonable adjustments and ‘best endeavours’ will be made to enable the child to succeed. Schools should not be telling students “You/they aren’t going anywhere.”
In some schools, staff needed support to shift how they viewed the child’s behaviour: from seeing it as ‘manipulative and controlling’, to developing a therapeutic understanding and accompanying this with a more positive use of language. SENDCo and other staff modelling the use of language and strategies helped to shift staff culture. It was important to see challenging behaviour as an expression of needs not being met i.e. physical or emotional. In other words, behaviour as a form of communication – the child is not being naughty – his or her behaviour is telling us we haven’t met his/her needs yet in an appropriate way and/or expectations are too high.
Whole school behaviour policies can be key at driving this change
The School/College Behaviour Policy should reflect the needs of:
The school policy could be supported by an action plan/risk assessment enabled the whole school team to be consistent in approach and understanding of need. View the statutory guidance from GOV.UK here.
| RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO REVIEW AND DEVELOP WHOLE SCHOOL/COLLEGE BEHAVIOUR POLICIES |
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| ANNA FREUD NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES School leaders and teaching staff work hard each day to support the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils and Anna Freud are determined to help them in every way we can. View resources for schools |
| MENTALLY HEALTHY SCHOOLS An effective school improvement plan involves governors, senior managers, parents/carers, staff, pupils and other school community members working together to establish priorities, set goals for improvement, implement strategies to achieve those goals and evaluate progress. Audit, improvement and strategy |
| TIME TO CHANGE Sign your school up to Time to Change. Time to Change is a national campaign to end the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health problems face in England run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness that aims to change behaviour, rather than just attitudes. Time to Change have put together packs for schools that includes everything you need to help start conversations about mental health at school. As well as everything you need for having your conversation in the staff room, there's an assembly, a lesson and a very quick session to run in form time, giving you ideas on how to start talking about mental health. Talking about mental health doesn’t need to be difficult, order your Time to Talk Day pack for everything you need to take part on the day. |
| Young Minds are campaigning for a future where all young minds are supported and empowered, whatever the challenges. We’re here to make sure they get the best possible mental health support and have the resilience to overcome life’s difficulties. Their website contains lots of resources for professionals, parent carers and young people.View resources and materials for teachers and school staff to build their skills and make mental health and wellbeing a core, rewarding part of their job here.. |
| Schools in Mind is a free network for school staff and allied professionals which shares practical, academic and clinical expertise regarding the wellbeing and mental health issues that affect schools. The network provides a trusted source of up-to-date and accessible information and resources that school leaders, teachers and support staff can use to support the mental health and wellbeing of the children and young people in their care. |
Consistency across the school was integral to working effectively with the pupil. However, it was also important that the approach used with the pupil was personalised to meet needs. Staff sometimes needed to be ‘given permission’ to focus resources and support on the emotional needs of the child (rather than academic interventions) especially when the child or young person was not in a place where he/she was ready to learn.
