This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's Early Years Advisory Teacher, Karen Loft, for the attention of all Early Years and Childcare Practitioners.
This week is Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is Let’s Connect, raising awareness of making meaningful connections that can help support mental health and wellbeing.
This Teacher Bulletin brings together a range of resources and advice to help children and young people with their mental health and wellbeing.
Take a look at the Education Hub for the latest on how the Department is supporting the mental health of children and young people.
Senior mental health lead training
Senior mental health lead training helps develop the knowledge and skills of school or college leaders to implement an effective whole school or college approach to promoting and supporting mental health and wellbeing.
A senior member of school or college staff can apply for a grant to access DfE quality assured training. We encourage you to claim a grant before 31 March 2023 and book to attend a training course anytime in spring or summer academic terms 2023.
Supporting wellbeing to help with attendance
Helping pupils to attend school
See the published new guidance to help school staff, as well as academy trustees, parents/ carers and local authorities support pupils experiencing social, emotional or mental health issues that may be affecting their attendance. There is also further guidance available on supporting pupil attendance, alongside best practice case studies and training webinars.
Guide for parents
Members of the Attendance Action Alliance have worked with us to develop a short guide to help parents understand how they can work with their school and local authority to support their children to attend school and get the right support. Head to the Children’s Commissioner’s website for the guidance and other helpful resources.
Resources to support staff wellbeing
There is also support available to both teachers and school leaders to support your own wellbeing and address challenges around workload. This includes:
Reducing staff workload
- Developed with school leaders, the school workload reduction toolkit includes practical resources to help schools identify and address workload issues, as well as evaluating the impact of any steps you’ve taken.
Education staff wellbeing charter
- Co-created with the sector, the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter sets out shared commitments to promote, protect and enhance the wellbeing of staff. The charter can be used to create your school’s wellbeing strategy.
- Watch videos featuring staff from Bedford Academy explaining how they have used the charter to embed wellbeing at the heart of the school or read their blog with top tips.
Funded support for school leaders
- School leaders, including assistant heads, can access free one-to-one supervision and counselling, through a funded scheme delivered by the Education Support charity. This support is available to all state funded schools and trusts regardless of whether they have access to a separate employee assistance programme.
For more information please follow this link:
Teacher Bulletin: Children's Mental Health Week (govdelivery.com)