We were approached by a local academy to support them in the development of key resources, consultation activities and workshops to enhance the awareness of mental health issues facing their pupils at key stages of their journey in school.

Working in partnership with Pastoral Leads and key stakeholders, our Educational Psychologist developed a package of materials and activities to support the school.

 

This ranged from:

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Planning activities – discussions with parents, pupils and key school stakeholders to:

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• create an annual plan

• agree core activities and topics

• identify target audiences and effective means of communication and engagement

• timescale for delivery

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Training & Team Development

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• Whole School training:

• Development of Therapeutic Skills for Trauma Informed Practice

• Introduction to Attachment Theory & Developmental Trauma

 

Topics for delivery to core Pastoral Lead team members:

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• An introduction to therapeutic skills and the PACE model

• An introduction to emotional coaching

• Good practice and what we know about resilient schools

• Understanding and responding to anxiety based school refusal

• Stress, worry and anxiety. Responding to our young people.

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Parent Workshops & Resources:

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• Termly after school workshops around key topics including: Anxiety; Self Esteem; Friendships/Friends; Self Harm etc.

• Group Interventions

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Sessions delivered to peer mentors/school council with the outcomes to build:

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• self-awareness and core skills

• relating to emotional awareness

• emotional regulation

• social awareness

• decision making and positive futures

 

 

Small group sessions based on key themes taken from Resilience Framework for children and young people (adapted from Hart and Blincow 2007; reference Boing Boing 2015).  The Resilience Framework summarises a set of ideas and practices that promote resilience, topics include:

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COMPETENCY                                                               SESSION TOPIC

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Self-Awareness / Social Awareness                             1. Feelings / understanding feeling we have in our selves and others

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Self-Awareness /Social Awareness                              2. Talking about feelings

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Self-Awareness / Self-Management                            3. Understanding our body and feelings

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Self-Management / Emotional Awareness               4. Paying attention to ourselves

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Self-Awareness and Self-management                     5. Changing unhelpful thoughts

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Social awareness / Relationship skills                        6. Values based role models

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Self-Management / Self Awareness                            7. Understanding stressors/ introducing coping step plans

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Responsible decision making                                         8. Our roles and responsibilities.  Solution finding together

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Resilient Schools - where do we fit in                           9. Intro to Resilient Framework for school.

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Key ingredients of a resilient school

 

Self-Awareness /social skills /                                         10. Reflection and moving on

giving back to the community

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Small group intervention to address key themes bespoke to each age and stage. For example:

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• Year 7 transition focus (managing change and school belonging).

• Key Stage 3 (core self, belonging and skills of friendship / social awareness)

• Years 10 and 11 (preparation for life - positive futures)

 

Each group will receives six sessions of direct delivery on key topics:

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• Bespoke interventions

 

Tailored interventions for individual young people who are seen as requiring a focused approach to address underlying vulnerabilities such as:

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• risk of exclusion;

• showing lower level of attendance or school avoidance; or,

• struggling with key aspects of mental health and well-being

 

Support will be provided by way of:

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• bespoke 8-week intervention, to help the young person work through a journey of change (utilising Motivational Interviewing approach); or,

• therapeutic intervention and bespoke package for young person, supported by an assigned Psychotherapist

 

The provision of these services brought mental health awareness to the whole school environment, providing focussed and specific support when required.

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For more details regarding the services provided and how these impact the delivery of therapeutic education and care, please contact us.