Children are struggling with their mental health and wellbeing now more than ever before, with NHS figures suggesting that 1 in 5 children aged 8 to 16 have a probable mental health condition, including 16% of 8, 9 and 10-year-olds (Newlove-Delgado et al, 2023).
In our schools, we are seeing a rise in stress levels, anxiety, aggression, and challenging behaviour and these are becoming constant barriers to learning for some children.
When I look at why this might be, I can see two major influencing factors. The first is adverse experiences outside of school, which can be anything from trauma and abuse to living in a low-income family (and we all know the cost of living is pushing more families to the edge).
These experiences leave children coping with challenging circumstances while also juggling the pressures of school. This directly affects their emotional state – often evident in their behaviour.
However, there is another factor that I see as having a significant impact on children’s wellbeing and that is the way in which we live our lives.
Life in 2024 is fast-paced, demanding and jam-packed. For adults, we have somehow created a society that makes us believe that in order to be successful we should be over-worked and exhausted!
We juggle so many things that it has become the norm to feel overwhelmed and constantly busy. Unfortunately, children are being pulled into this too and their time is often filled right up with clubs and activities. They have little time to rest and just play.
Worse, when children do get time to play, they are now playing with technology and social media. Many spend hours on games consoles, tablets and phones or scrolling on social media.
Using technology is addictive and can contribute to poor mental health. It can leave children feeling over-stimulated, anxious and with low mood and energy.
Dr Anna Lembke is assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University Medical Center in the US and head of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic.
She explained: “Smartphone screens light up the same area of the brain as opioids and cannabis. The rewards pathways mediated by dopamine respond to screens in a very similar way to opioids.”
Which means that using a smartphone can be just as damaging and addictive as using drugs – yet they have become a fundamental part of children’s play.
In school, it is essential we consider these factors and provide opportunities for children to release the stress hormones that have built up and find some calm and balance.
Despite conventional play getting lost outside of school, we can champion it within school.
Ideas and advice for outdoor learning from Headteacher Update
Article: From simple beginnings via an eco-club, the outdoor provision at Archbishop Cranmer Academy is now core to the school’s ethos. Headteacher Melanie Stevens describes their activities and offers ideas and inspiration for others. Click here.
Webinar: This edition of the Headteacher Update Webinar offers a range of ideas, advice, and tips for effective outdoor learning provision, including activities to support pupil wellbeing and reduce anxiety. Click here.
Podcast: This episode of the Headteacher Update Podcast is packed full of advice, ideas, and tips for delivering effective and impactful outdoor learning in the primary school. Click here.
Early in my career, I was a play-worker, setting up play opportunities for children while running after-school and holiday clubs. I later became a play therapist and used play to help children explore and make sense of traumatic experiences.
Play is very powerful indeed and builds cognitive, physical, and social and emotional skills – it is one of the most effective ways that children learn (Zosh et al, 2017). Play helps our pupils to (see Gray, 2011):
- Regulate emotions and reduce depression, anxiety, and feelings of helplessness.
- Improve physical, social, and emotional wellbeing.
- Explore and organise difficult thoughts, emotions, and life experiences.
- Build resilience, self-esteem, independence, and confidence, and to cope with challenging situations.
- Learn how to make decisions, solve problems, exert self-control, and follow rules.
These are skills every child needs to develop. All it takes from adults is to set up play opportunities and children will do the rest.
In the primary school, the easiest way to offer good quality play is during break and lunch time, especially when you consider that not all children benefit from running around the playground.
For some children, break and dinner can be the most difficult time of the day and can lead to challenging behaviour that is rooted in anxiety and stress. So providing different opportunities can reduce the number of incidents on the playground.
It is important to note that this work is important for all children, regardless of their age. Pupils in years 5 and 6 need to play too, perhaps even more so than the younger ones.
Every playground break should consider the differing needs of the children – some need to run and play, others need to self-regulate and gather their thoughts.
Think about yourself for a moment – some adults use their break to read or walk, others chat to friends or sit quietly. We have the autonomy to choose what we need. Children need this same autonomy. For this reason I recommend splitting play into two core needs: play and regulation. Here are some ideas.
Play opportunities
Sand play: Sand play is calming and can help children self-sooth. If budget allows, invest in a large sandpit for children (especially the juniors). Add trucks, spades, buckets, and sieves and let the children get creative.
Make believe: Provide opportunities for children to use their imaginations and be creative by adding areas to your playground like a den-building area, mud kitchen, and construction area. Set up resources just as you would for the infants and let children explore and play in whatever way they feel is best. Giving them something to do aside from kicking a ball and running around will focus their minds, play and communication. The playground for years 5 and 6 should be just as enriched as a nursery outdoor area.
Regulation opportunities
How can you help children manage their emotional state through providing opportunities for them to self-sooth or regulate and thus come back into the classroom ready to learn? Consider some safe spaces in your playground.
For example, add playhouses and pair them with soft, interlocking foam flooring, books, and teddies to give the children somewhere calm and enclosed to spend their break. These safe spaces will help reduce noise and offer a retreat to children who struggle with the chaos of the playground. You could also add movable tents for a more cost-effective solution.
And what kind of calming activities can we encourage? Buy some foam flooring and fill some baskets with books, construction toys, pencil crayons and colouring and set up some quiet zones in the playground.
Lots of children prefer sitting down to do something instead of running about and this is a great way to help them focus their minds and “switch-off” for a bit from school. This is a perfect idea for any unused areas of your playground and setting up the zones takes five minutes. The foam flooring makes the floor comfortable for children to sit on and marks out the “zone”. You could have one or two of these out at a time with different activities.
Be sure to create some rules (for example, all resources stay on mats) and perhaps have monitors who set up these areas and put them away at the end of break.
You could even have a member of staff joining in to help co-regulation and increase those feelings of connection and safety at a time when some pupils can feel overwhelmed.
Finally, simply playing with the children can make a huge difference to their sense of wellbeing and mental health. Get involved in football, do some skipping and play tag with them – not only will you help focus the children, but you will also increase their feeling of safety and connection (you will also feel better for it too).
Shahana Knight is a childhood trauma and behaviour specialist and the managing director at TPC Therapy, a mental health service for children. Learn more about her therapeutic teaching course via www.tpctherapy.co.uk/therapeutic-teaching-course. You can find her on X (Twitter) @Shahana_tpc. Read her previous articles for Headteacher Update via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/shahana-knight
Further information & resources
- Newlove-Delgado et al: NHS: Mental health of children and young people in England, 2023: Wave 4 follow up to the 2017 survey, NHS England, November 2023: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2023-wave-4-follow-up
- Zosh et al: Learning through play: A review of the evidence, The LEGO Foundation, 2017: https://learningthroughplay.com/explore-the-research/the-scientific-case-for-learning-through-play
- Gray: The decline of play and the rise of psychopathology in children and adolescents, American Journal of Play (3, 4), 2011: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ985541.pdf
- Gray: Free to learn: Why unleashing the instinct to play will make our children happier, more self-reliant, and better students for life, Basic Books, 2013.