The Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families provides guidance and support on how to help children and young people with their mental health.
Resources
We have picked out a number of resources that you may find particularly useful at this time:
- Managing unexpected endings and transitions
- Evidence about unplanned endings and transitions, as well as approaches to help children and young people face the current situation.
- Coping with unexpected endings and loss
- For school staff to share with parents and carers, providing practical ways to help children and young people dealing with loss they are experiencing through lockdown.
- Sharing good practice and looking to the future
- Examples of good practice that schools have shared about how they have adapted and responded to the challenges of lockdown, as well as considering how to use learnings to inform school planning.
- On My Minds self-care resource
- Over 90 self-care strategies identified and written by young people.
- Posters for early years settings offering simple advice for parents and carers:
- Resources for early years
All on Board Training – Parent Carer Engagement to Reduce Exclusions
The All on Board training supports staff in developing partnerships with parent and carers.
It consists of two twilight sessions (various dates available), as well as drop-in consultation calls. Delegates must attend both twilight sessions.
The training aims to support inclusion and reintegration by:
- Increasing the capacity of mainstream schools to deal with complex need
- Providing a means by which school staff can create a systemic formulation for children at risk of exclusion
- Creating a structure to communicate formulation-driven targets to teaching assistants and teachers
- Stimulating positive and functional engagement with parents/carers and other family members
- Providing a range of contexts to create change in parent and carer engagement and understanding of their child’s difficulties
- Giving schools the opportunity to reflect on the complex web of professional provision and resources around mental health and inclusion and hone a coherent approach
- Bridging the gap between the language used by education professionals and mental health professionals to describe their practice with children
- Developing consistency of approach between communities of schools.
Each course:
- Is online via Zoom
- Involves two twilight sessions (1hr 45 minutes each) across two afternoons plus 6 hours of self-guided content
- Runs 15:45–17:30
- Is fully funded
Dates available:
- 25 November – 16 December 2021
- 2 December 2021 – 6 January 2022
- 13 January – 3 February 2022
- 20 January – 10 February 2022
More information and book your place.
Please note that spaces are only available for senior staff from mainstream schools. Funding is capped at two delegates per school.
Schools in Mind
Schools in Mind is a free network for school staff and allied professionals which shares practical, academic and clinical expertise regarding the wellbeing and mental health issues that affect schools.
The network provides a trusted source of up-to-date and accessible information and resources that school leaders, teachers and support staff can use to support the mental health and wellbeing of the children and young people in their care.
Join the free Schools in Mind network today.
5 Steps to Mental Health and Wellbeing – A Framework for Schools and Colleges
The question is, how do you create a school or college-wide approach to mental health and wellbeing?
The Anna Freud Centre has created an evidence-based framework so that you can decide on your own approach to mental health and wellbeing in 5 simple steps. Their 5 Steps Framework is developed by mental health experts and teachers, for teachers.
It’s interactive, it’s simple and it’s free. It will help you to support staff, lead change, and engage with parents, carers and the community so that you can meet your pupils’ and students’ needs.
By registering with the Anna Freud Centre, you can move through the steps at your own pace and update a personalised action planning tool that can be regularly reviewed.
Read the 5 Steps to Mental Health and Wellbeing user guide for more information on how to use the framework.
More information
More information and guidance can be found at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families website.
