Like many other schools across the UK, it is worrying to see the increase in mental health issues in children and young people post-pandemic and the challenges our pupils are facing.
Early intervention is critical, and after figures showing hundreds of thousands of children sitting on mental health waiting lists – waiting an average of 187 days for mental health support – I wanted to look at how we could help in our school.
Post-pandemic, we noticed that there were some increased challenges with home-to-school transition that had an impact on the start of the school day and often delayed the start of teaching.
As a primary objective, I wanted to establish a comprehensive approach to pupil wellbeing, leveraging technology to support teachers and empower pupils, manage stress, and foster resilience.
The results have been positive, and we have seen some great improvements.
For example, for one pupil the poor transition from home to school has quickly transformed. We went from school avoidance and a teacher having to spend 45 minutes trying to settle a very anxious child to the excitement of coming into school without difficulty.
This pupil was supported through a consistent and positive meet and greet each morning using a bespoke web platform (see later) to deliver wellbeing support and encouragement.
Supporting the pupil in accessing a familiar, calm, and quiet space has been important, too, so that there are no surprises or unexpected moments. This has been useful, with the parent joining their child in this space for a couple of minutes until they are settled or transitioning to an activity with the support of an adult who is familiar to them.
In addition to early intervention, which is so crucial, I want to share four ways we are trying to improve pupil wellbeing at our school.
1, Personalised wellbeing support
There is a school-wide appreciation and acceptance that we must understand each pupil's wellbeing journey and its uniqueness. Therefore, we have developed a personalised approach to wellbeing support.
We now provide immediate support to pupils who are facing various challenges, empowering them to manage their emotions effectively.
This personalised approach covers a wide range of strategies, including one-to-one support at identified times of difficulty, small roles of responsibility upon entering school, bespoke visuals, and emotional support on entering school.
Bespoke visuals include specifically chosen visuals to link to the language used and which are familiar to the individual, or one-page profiles that identify how the child likes to be supported or what helps ensure their peace, happiness or engagement.
Some children like to see the day's timetable, others like to have the sessions split into smaller chunks so that they are aware of how their morning or afternoon will look.
Other personalised approaches could include a consistent and familiar meet and greet as they enter school, and access to a familiar and safe space in the school for the first few minutes of the day, with preferred activities such as colouring, soft toys or Lego.
Knowing the children is pivotal – having a limited number of options and building up “emotional currency” over time so that interactions are increasingly bespoke make a significant difference. Also, this approach focuses on positive interactions that are personalised and real rather than generic or inconsequential interactions.
2, Data-informed approach
We prioritise data-informed decision-making to ensure the effectiveness of our wellbeing practices. Collecting and analysing pupil wellbeing data gives us valuable insights into trends, patterns, and areas requiring additional support.
This allows us to tailor our interventions, allocate resources effectively, and measure the impact of our efforts over time. A data-informed approach looks at collections made over time, such as attendance, data from our CPOMs software, behaviour records, and good day/bad day information.
Rapid support can be implemented at the point of need when data and other information identify a concern or a trend. This may include deeper wishes and feelings being gathered through a targeted activity. The data will also trigger a whole department or school awareness for the emotional and mental health wellbeing of the identified pupil or early intervention and support for the family.
It is an extra early indicator of concern, and it enables a clearer proactive approach to support before escalation of behaviours and emotions.
3, Using technology
We explored technology to support pupils, nurturing them to be their best – technology that can automatically tailor interventions and coping strategies to each child's needs.
By leveraging digital tools, such as mindfulness and emotional regulation apps, we have created calmer classrooms and improved behaviour. This aspect has transformed outcomes for some of our pupils and has allowed us a stronger foundation for our data-informed approach above.
As mentioned, we use a bespoke web platform (called Lumii.me). Children are able to access this daily to consider how they are feeling. In a two-week window, every child in key stage 2 accessed the personalised log-on to the app.
They were able to regulate their emotions, consider how they were feeling about a range of issues (home and school), receive gentle and generic advice.
Using technology to track and monitor pupils' mental wellbeing, we can immediately spot any red flags when intervention is needed. Additionally, we have been able to monitor other areas of pupil life – friendships, academic access, home, long-term worries, changes in life anxieties, etc.
4, Lifelong support
We can empower pupils by listening, conversing, providing coping strategies, and enabling early intervention to prevent crises and teach self-regulation strategies.
We give the pupils self-coping strategies which gradually empower them to soothe and help themselves. Such coping strategies could include growth mindset activities such as social stories to reduce the emotional response and help pupils identify rational potential steps for future scenarios.
Also, support should be implemented to manage behaviours and thoughts and regulate and reduce emotions.
Where there are patterns of difficulties in managing relationships and friendships, a bespoke friendship group can be implemented, looking at ways of supporting ourselves and others, managing disagreements and mood changes, or rationalising thoughts and behaviours by looking at alternative options.
For some pupils, the toolkit approach, such as that linked with the Homunculi approach, has yielded excellent regulation strategies. This may include objects such as a perspective torch, which helps pupils identify how different perspectives give different responses.
We encourage open dialogue in a bid to destigmatise mental health. Our pupils know that how they feel is real, but their thoughts and behaviours can be key to unlocking lifelong approaches to how they accept and manage such feelings.
Our staff are encouraged to share their range of emotions too. There is an open discussion about how our feelings may be heightened one day or reduced the next, for example. Or as part of celebration worship, there is a recognition of how emotions may have been managed throughout the week. Perhaps recognition of a big week where we may have been nervous about something new.
We learn about key emotions and the impact they may have, alongside strategies to manage them and keep them from escalation through recognition and acceptance.
Final thoughts
Using these approaches has helped our pupils to create calmer classrooms without increasing teacher workload. In fact, it has allowed adults in the school the time to meet other needs and requirements by freeing them up from co-regulation work first thing in the school day.
- Rachel Jones is the headteacher and safeguarding lead at Kingsley St John's School in Cheshire which uses Lumii.me, a web and app platform delivering wellbeing support. With 15 years of experience as a headteacher and 26 years in teaching, Rachel is trained in trauma and mental health. Rachel is also an English lead. Read her previous contributions to Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/rachel-jones