This first full week in September has meant the return to school for millions of children in England after a six-month lockdown.
For those who are starting at a new school there will be all the usual pressures of making new friends and familiarising themselves with new surroundings.
In addition, the class of 2021 is now catching up on the predicted shortfall in learning, dealing with the mental health implications of the lockdown, handling the subsequent social distancing rules and the fact that they are going back to school amid a pandemic.
What’s the good news?
Schools have been working hard during the lockdown, teaching those pupils who still came in, preparing and delivering teaching resources for pupils learning from home and putting in place all manner of processes and safety measures to enable students to return this week.
In addition, this new cohort of children and teenagers are the first to benefit from mental health and wellbeing being introduced into the curriculum.
This means that teachers and other school support staff will not only be openly discussing mental health in the classroom, but they will be more aware of what to look for in pupils who might need additional support in this area.
Pupils will be learning more about how to build their own resilience and develop more complex coping strategies, which should stand them in good stead for better mental health and wellbeing throughout their lives.
Shawmind, which was instrumental in getting the initial debate on mental health education in schools tabled in Parliament in 2017, is committed to providing additional training to teachers.
In fact, we’re running a fundraising campaign right now, Give Five, Save Lives, to raise the necessary funds to train additional teachers across the country.
If you’re a teacher interested in mental health training, please contact us to discuss your specific needs.
Mental Health Training for Families
We’ve spent lockdown devising a range of mental health training resources for children, teenagers and their parents and we’re proud to introduce our Monkey Wisdom courses.
If you would like to get a free taster of what the courses have to offer please visit our YouTube channel and watch Tana Macpherson-Smith deliver a session for teenagers and parents.
Click here to find out more about the full courses: https://shawmind.org/online-training-children-mental-health/
Back to School Giveaway
In partnership with Trigger Publishing, the UK’s leading mental health and wellbeing publisher, we have been giving away copies of Superheroes Don’t Get Scared and My Mindful Journal to competition winners via our social media pages.
Three winners have already got their copies – just head to our Facebook or Twitter accounts to find out more and to take part.
The competition ends on Tuesday 22nd September 2020.
Free Mental Health Guides
A range of mental health guides are available to download for free from our website and cover all the basics when it comes to a mental health disorder. Our guides are approved by a qualified mental health practitioner.
Head over here for your free guides: https://shawmind.org/our-mental-health-guides/
Volunteer Support
If you need to access our support services, please get in touch to talk to us today. If you need to talk, we’re here to listen.
