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education are privileged to be instrumental in building these foundations, to support lifelong emotional health and wellbeing.
Andre Bailey, Headteacher of Nightingale Community Academy, London said: “In good schools, where agreement around the personal development of children is well established, mental wellbeing and resilience are explicitly measured and taught. The tools and the language vary but the rationale is clear: children who can articulate their feelings, make mistakes and recover and build trusting relationships thrive. This cannot happen without school-wide processes that train staff to be more attuned to their own mental wellbeing and that of the children”.
PSHE done well is not a fixed tick list of topics. It is a flexible resource, designed to help children and young adults navigate through their life. The Education Act 2002 requires all schools to teach a curriculum that is ‘broadly based, balanced and meets the needs of pupils’. When a school is developing their intent statement for their PSHE curriculum it will reflect on these overarching key elements, their own school’s values, balanced with the specific needs of their pupils.
A whole school approach to PSHE
It is widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and wellbeing influences their cognitive development and learning as well as their physical and social health and their mental wellbeing in adulthood.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Public Health England advises that all schools should be supported to adopt a comprehensive, ‘whole school’ approach to promoting the social and emotional wellbeing of young people.
Such an approach moves beyond academic learning but has been found to be effective in sustaining health benefits. Eight key principles underpin an effective whole-school approach
and have been identified in Public Health England’s ‘Promoting children and young people’s emotional health and wellbeing: A whole school approach’ (PHE, 2015) as providing an excellent framework for building your whole school approach to wellbeing.
A whole school approach starts with the child.
Key questions to discuss:-
• What do we want for the children in our school?
• How do our values support our objective?
• How are we providing visible leadership to promote emotional health and wellbeing?
A mentally healthy school involves the school network working together. Collaboration between senior leaders, teachers and all staff, as well as parents, carers and the wider community. When delivered well, PSHE has a significant impact on all outcomes for pupils, particularly the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.
Now is the time to bring together the skills and resources in education to help schools bring emotional wellbeing into the classroom and into the centre of children’s lives.
■ Happy pupils. SEN114
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About the author
Donna Hill, Education Business Development Manager
Coram Life Education & SCARF
coramlifeeducation.org.uk @coramlifeeducation CoramLifeEducation