Blog
Susan Jamieson
Junior School Principal Teacher, Robert Gordon’s College
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“What’s your best discovery?” asked the mole. “That I’m enough as I am,” said the boy. (Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse)
The boy in ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ discovered that he was enough as he was. He eventually knew who he was and he felt happy as he was. Undoubtedly, this discovery would have helped his mental health grow, making him stronger when faced with life’s challenges.
However, not all pupils under our care in the education system feel the same. Recent research published in The Lancet found that between 2012-2013 and 2021-2022, there was a 65% increase in the number of children and young people admitted to general acute medical wards in hospitals in England due to mental health concerns. Additionally, according to The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, “About 1 in 10 children and young people between the ages of five and 16 had a mental illness that could be diagnosed clinically, but they lacked the services to support them.”
With the number of hospital admissions increasing, accessing support services can be challenging. It is increasingly falling to schools to support pupils with mental health issues. Providing education about mental health and ensuring there is support in place before a young person reaches a mental health crisis episode is crucial.
“What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever said?” asked the boy. “Help,” said the horse. (Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse)
Pupils’ anxieties, worries, and friendship concerns can prevent them from realising that they are enough as they are. The Horse in the story wisely says, the bravest thing he ever said was, “Help.” Asking for help is not always easy, especially when you feel you are not enough, that something feels wrong but you don’t know what it is. Why do you worry about the smallest things that no one else seems to be worried about? Why do you feel so sad when others around you appear so happy? Why can’t you control your anger when others can?
Integrating mental health discussions into the curriculum is invaluable. It allows pupils to explore emotions, navigate challenges they may come across, and, most importantly, develop strategies to support their mental health and know when to ask for help. At Robert Gordon’s College, we utilise the annual Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week to highlight mental health issues and conduct wellbeing check ins.
During Mental Health Week, our Junior School Pupil Council Representatives take an active role by delivering daily tannoy announcements and presentations to support their peers. Each day focuses on a character from Disney’s Inside Out 2, with pupils selecting the characters they felt resonated most with them, Sadness, Anxiety, Embarrassment, Anger and Joy. It was an interesting and enlightening discussion for me to listen to as they debated why they felt these characters/emotions impacted on their lives and their peers.
The Junior School Pupil Council Reps from P4-7 are discussing Children’s Mental Health Week with peers and linking it to Disney’s Inside Out 2 with a different emotion being a focus for each day. They created a video with tips which is shared with class teachers to play in class. They also created their own slides to discuss what that emotion could look like or how to help yourself if you are feeling that emotion.
As a result of our ongoing mental health education, pupils are equipped to offer advice, recognising how to support themselves and others in each emotion based scenario. We don’t solely recognise mental health for one week in February. Positive mental health messages are embedded across the curriculum. All staff are trained in the Confident Staff, Confident Children programme, with topics covering Child Development, Emotional Resilience, and Positive Relationships. Pupils follow a 3 year rolling programme which explores ten tools that promote mental health and wellbeing delivered through assemblies, classwork and homework, it engages pupils, families and staff in order to raise awareness and understanding of these tools. This aligns with our Health and wellbeing curriculum, which includes lessons on emotions and relationships. Additionally, we have staff trained in Mental Health First Aid for Young People and LIAM (Let’s Introduce Anxiety Management) in collaboration with NHS Grampian and CAMHS. For pupils requiring additional support, we offer one to one guidance.
Does this mean that we, at Robert Gordon’s, can sit back and assume that our pupils’ mental health is fine? Absolutely not. Mental health education is continuously evolving. Since the launch of Place2be’s Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015, both society and mental health education have undergone significant changes. It is evident that although COVID-19 played its part in increasing hospital admissions for mental health concerns, it was not the only cause, as The Lancet research demonstrated, admissions were already rising prior to the pandemic. Social media is certainly in the firing line as a contributing factor. Some might even argue that increased discussions about mental health have contributed to the crisis as discussed in The New York Times article from May 2024, “Are we talking too much about Mental Health?”
Regardless of the causes of an increase in mental health, it remains clear that, as schools, we must continue to support our young people, whether that be in aiding them to ask for help or demonstrating to them that they are enough as they are. That way our pupils will be able to ‘Know themselves, grow themselves.’
How do you do this, well ask yourself the following questions. Are you able to identify a mental concern quickly before it reaches crisis level? What is your school using as curriculum resources to support mental health? Is it appropriate for the mental health concerns being displayed in your school? Could there be internal support structures in place for your pupils? Do you know who externally can help and how? Can your school identify successfully a mental health concern prior to crisis level and know how to help?
Practical suggestions on how schools can support young people –