Schools and colleges have an important role to play in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of their pupils and students, by developing approaches tailored to the particular needs of their pupils and students.
All schools are under a statutory duty to promote the welfare of their pupils and students, and Ofsted takes account of high- quality pastoral care, which enable pupils and students to develop into resilient adults with good mental health.
The whole-school approach is a joined up strategic approach – where wellbeing underpins all aspects of school life. It is a proactive and preventative, long term approach – becoming embedded deeper over time. It is endorsed by Public Health England and the Department for Education as a way of promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing,
Eight principles to promoting a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing
- Leadership and management that supports and champions efforts to promote emotional health and wellbeing
- Curriculum teaching and learning to promote resilience and support social and emotional learning
- Enabling student voice to influence decisions
- Staff development to support their own wellbeing and that of students
- Identifying need and monitoring impact of interventions
- Working with parents and carers
- Targeted support and appropriate referral
- An ethos and environment that promotes respect and values diversity
- Develop and implement an effective wellbeing provision that enables all pupils to access support
- Evaluate the outcome of interventions on pupils’ wellbeing and attainment
- Identify gaps in your strategy and source relevant expertise, coordinating training or support for staff
- Develop training and teaching tools to ensure a consistent school wide approach, embedding positive mental health and wellbeing
