EHWB / mental health

Emotional health and wellbeing is important in its own right. Children and young people's emotional, psychological and social states affect their ability to learn and can also impact on their physical health. Schools can play a key role in helping children and young people (including those who are identified as needing extra support) to build emotional resilience, enabling them to deal with their emotions and understand how to treat other people, which in turn helps them to react to stressful situations more effectively.

Download Improved emotional health and wellbeing for examples of possible evidence-based and good practice actions which lead to healthier behaviour outcomes. Although written for the Healthy Schools enhancement model, the planning sheets Planning our change: anti-bullying and Planning our change: emotional health and wellbeing are also of use to schools doing Healthy Schools Plus.

We are particularly keen to help the schools involved in the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) project with HS Plus. In this way, schools can use their good practice for both pieces of work! Schools doing the TaMHS project have been given access to the PASS (Pupil Attitude to Self and School) survey. In those TaMHS schools that are also doing Healthy Schools Plus the PASS data is used as baseline data and subsequent use of PASS will measure improvement.

Other questionnaires are in use in schools; the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Test which some secondary schools have used with pupils. 

We have also made R Time work in the primary school a suggested project for schools in Cohort 2, based on the excellent experiences and best practice of schools in Cohort 1. If your school is doing this, we've compiled this list of prompts to help you with your action planning.

Making it mainstream. This booklet aims to provide a brief resource for secondary school staff who are interested in developing sustainable in-school support for pupils with mental health problems, particularly depression. It brings together information from the policy context, the research field and the practice-learning context.

From the Samaritans, the DEAL programme helps schools to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that young people need to cope with the challenges in life and look after their emotional health and wellbeing. It aims to promote emotional health among young people aged 14-16.