This resource looks at the topic of emotionally-based school avoidance (EBSA) and shares ideas to help education staff address the issue. Emotionally-based school avoidance is a term referring to reduced or non-attendance at school by a child or young person. Rather than the term ‘school refusal’, the term EBSA recognises that this avoidance has its root in emotional, mental health or wellbeing issues. The 2022 Attendance Audit from the Children’s Commissioner found that in Autumn 2021, 1 in 4 children were persistently absent. In 2018/2019, this figure was 1 in 9 – meaning that persistent absence has more than doubled in this time period. This resource: introduces the topic of EBSA explores some of the potential risk factors provides strategies and tips to help education staff tackle the issue.

A booklet for primary and secondary schools to support all staff working in school settings to understand how best to help children and young people in their care. Developed with our child mental health experts, the booklet explains in simple terms what to do if you are worried about a child or young person in your school, and includes information on a range of topics including anxiety, low mood and self-harm. The colourful, informative pages could also be printed and displayed as posters in staff areas.

It’s never been a busier time for school leaders and teaching staff with an interest in promoting mental health. Our Supporting mental health and wellbeing in secondary schools booklet for teachers offers an introduction to some of the mental health issues that children in secondary schools may face. The booklet, developed with our child mental health experts, explains in simple terms what to do if you are worried about a child or young person in your school, and includes information on a range of topics including exam stress, sleep problems, eating disorders, substance use, ADHD and responding to traumatic events.

Self-care is all about what you can do to help yourself feel better or to keep yourself feeling good. It’s a way that we can look after our own mental health and wellbeing. Everyone’s approach to self-care will look different. What works for you might not work for others. There are lots of different self-care strategies so you can try out different ones until you find something that works for you. This resource walks young people through a series of steps, helping them create a detailed self-care plan that works for them. The plan helps young people identify activities that they can use to support their mental health. It’s adaptable on a weekly or monthly basis, so that it can fit differing schedules or priorities. The suggested activities in the plan are split into different categories, including: physical activities emotional activities social activities practical activities The resource was co-written by Anna Freud Centre experts and young people, who shared ideas on self-care strategies that work for them.

A template for writing your own anti-racism policy in consultation with representatives from across the whole-school community. Developing and implementing an anti-racism policy can have a number of benefits for your school or college community. It can improve the self-esteem and confidence of students, increase the recruitment and retention of racially minoritised staff, and bring more confidence in tackling racial inequalities and incidents. By demonstrating commitment to an anti-racism culture in your setting, you will contribute to better wellbeing and mental health for racially minoritised students and staff. This resource shares a general template for writing your own anti-racism policy. It is split into different sections for you to draft, with key questions to consider listed under each section.

Ways for schools to gather student voice, including suggested questions to add to a student survey. Taking a whole-school approach to anti-racism means putting the views and ideas of students at the centre of everything we do. Taking students’ views into consideration should always be a part of decision-making at your school. Schools should provide children and young people with meaningful opportunities to share their experiences, views and hopes about their school. Asking students for their opinions and ideas around anti-racism has benefits for both the school and the students and can be done in many different ways. It can provide: an improved sense of belonging and community in the school an improved sense of identity for students developing students’ confidence and self-esteem a safe space for students to share lived experiences of racism identification of issues or specific students who are having difficulties and who may need further support This resource shares a number of suggestions for gathering student voice around anti-racism. It also shares suggested questions to add to a student survey, with guidance on how best to do this.

Supporting Staff is one of our 5 Steps towards a whole school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. The simplest way to understand what teachers and school staff need to support their mental health is to ask them. However, many education institutions do not regularly survey staff to establish their levels of wellbeing. This document provides sets of questions to help schools and colleges better understand their staff and provide them with the support they need. It includes tools that can be used to measure wellbeing robustly and consistently. Use these sets of questions to find out: How teachers and school/college staff are feeling What is driving good and poor mental health (including asking staff how they feel about work practices, culture, engagement and management) How supported teachers and school/college staff feel Whether staff feel equipped to support children and young people with their mental health Any additional support they need for their mental health and wellbeing. Schools and colleges may want to use the whole survey or may want to select sections from it, depending on priorities and needs.

Understanding need is one of our 5 Steps towards a whole school or college approach to mental heath and wellbeing. This short guide for schools and colleges focuses on how to use measurement tools to understand pupils’ wellbeing so that you can provide them with the support they need. In this resource we focus on two main ways of using surveys: Using surveys with large groups of pupils (a cohort) to understand their needs. Using questionnaires with individual pupils to understand their specific needs. We recommend this useful resource for any schools and colleges who want to understand the mental wellbeing needs of their pupils using a simple step-by-step approach.

Just as we look after our physical health, it’s important to look after our mental health. Self-care is all about what you can do to help yourself feel better or to keep yourself feeling good. It’s a way that we can look after our own mental health and wellbeing. It can help your body and mind to relax, drift away, or be more energised. This self-care plan walks primary-aged children through a series of steps, helping them create a simple self-care plan that works for them. It helps children identify activities that they can use to support their mental health. Some of the suggested self-care activities include: music and dance mindfulness art The resource was co-written by Anna Freud Centre experts and young people, who shared ideas on self-care strategies that work for them.

In this series of five podcast episodes, Cyra Neave, Senior Clinician at the Anna Freud Centre, interviews a number of experts to talk about racism and mental health in schools. Racism has a detrimental impact on the lives of Black and racially minoritised young people, and when experienced it affects both their mental health and potential to thrive. This podcast series, Talking racism and mental health in schools, features experts in mental health, education and anti-racism exploring topics like representation, culture and community. It provides advice and practical steps to support all education staff to create a whole school community which is anti-racist. Guests on the podcast include former teacher, campaigner, author and speaker the Honourable Stuart Lawrence, and Eve Doran, researcher at Black Learning Achievement and Mental Health (BLAM). The podcast episodes also feature the voices and experiences of teachers. Listen to the podcast now.

It is important for staff to recognise and intervene if they become aware of students at risk of developing unhealthy relationships. Find out more about the signs to spot and how to approach a student if you’re concerned. A guidance booklet for college staff about what to do if a student is in a potentially unhealthy relationship with a romantic partner or friend.

Research suggest that 1 in 4 young women and 1 in 10 young men have self-harmed at some point in their life. Learn more about potential reasons why, how to help a student and who else to involve. A detailed guidance booklet for college staff on the topic of self-harm, explaining how staff can help if they are concerned about a student.

A guide to reviewing all of your existing school policies with an anti-racist lens. Often, we don’t recognise or understand institutional or systemic racism because we don’t recognise that incidents are part of a pattern. This pattern can include behaviour that results from many of the policies that we use in school to support our day-to-day decision making. Reviewing your existing policies can help you to identify these patterns and improve your policies by making them fair and equitable to all members of the school community. Some of the policies you may want to review include: Behaviour and relationships policy Anti-bullying policy Exclusions policy School uniform policy or rules This resource shares guidance on how to review these existing policies, what to look out for and who to be involved.

An instructional case study from a school who set up a working group looking at diversifying their curriculum, and ensuring it is representative of their student population. In order for children and young people to fully engage with their learning, they need to see themselves reflected in what they are learning about. Not feeling represented in the curriculum can be disempowering and discouraging. This can negatively affect young people’s wellbeing, stopping them from achieving their full potential at school. Diversifying the curriculum is something many schools may already be thinking about or undertaking, and is something that can have real benefits to students. Wonu Adedoyin-Salau is Assistant Headteacher and Curriculum Leader of English at a school in East London. In this case study, she explains some of the steps she took to set up a working group looking at diversifying her schools curriculum, with advice for school staff looking to follow the same path.

Cultural exchange in general is defined as when people of two or more different backgrounds trade ideas, feelings, stories and customs. Cultural exchange can be used as a form of creating dialogue and understanding diversity in communities to help build community relations and cohesion. Some examples of cultural exchange in a school context may include: A school trip to another country Visiting a cultural venue, like a museum, that has exhibits and artefacts from different cultures around the world A culture sharing event For this resource, we’ll be focusing on culture sharing events; ways that schools can facilitate sharing between the different cultures that make up your school community. The resource includes ideas for cultural exchange activities and what to keep in mind when planning them.

A lesson planning guide for teaching a curriculum topic that is linked to race and racism, or for when a potentially traumatic racist incident occurs in the wider world. The UK Trauma Council defines trauma as ‘a distressing event or events that are so extreme or intense that they overwhelm a person’s ability to cope, resulting in lasting negative impact.’ When this event or events are related to race, it is sometimes known as ‘racial trauma’. Experiencing overt racism – for example being a victim of a racially-motivated hate crime - could cause a trauma response in young people. However, racism can have a traumatic impact even when it isn’t something that directly happens to you. Racist and race-related events may occur in the wider world that may cause traumatic responses in young people; for example, the 2020 murder of George Floyd in the United States. There may also be topics that are part of the curriculum – for example, learning about slavery or the Holocaust in history lessons – that may be painful for young people to learn about. In this resource, we have created a lesson planning guide for teaching a curriculum topic that is linked to race and racism, or for when a potentially traumatic racist incident occurs in the wider world.

Information for staff on how best to support a student who has experienced racism and where else to seek support. Children and young people can experience racism in many different forms. It can include verbal abuse and name-calling; racist comments during a discussion or encouraging others to behave in a racist way. Sometimes racism can include damage to property, physical intimidation or violent attacks. All schools should have a clear structure and process for reporting racist incidents, and must create one if they do not. It is important to create opportunities to hear students’ voices and to have a clear framework for reporting racist incidents. Research has found links between experiencing racism and a detrimental impact to mental health. This resource shares guidance for schools on how to support the mental health of a young person who has experienced racism, as well as how to address the incident and further suggestions for tackling racism in schools.

A PowerPoint and guidance on delivering a presentation about microaggressions to staff members. A microaggression is ‘an act or a remark that discriminates against one or more members of a minority group, either deliberately or by mistake’. Research has found that experiencing microaggressions can have a significant impact on mental health. Through this training, staff will learn more about: what microaggressions are the mental health impact of experiencing microaggressions how to avoid committing microaggressions what to do if they experience or witness a microaggression. This training session is an introduction to the topic of microaggressions, and can easily be delivered by someone without much or any prior knowledge of the topic. It was designed to be delivered by a senior leader in a school to all school staff including support staff.

Information about the impact of racism on school staff, and guidance for schools on how to foster a safe and supportive environment. Some schools already have excellent initiatives in place to support their staff’s mental health and wellbeing, making it a whole-school priority. Schools are becoming aware that in order to properly support the wellbeing of students, the wellbeing of staff must be treated with equal importance. This resource helps schools specifically think about supporting the mental health and wellbeing of staff from racially minoritised groups. It covers topics that may impact the mental health of staff from these groups, including the ‘hidden workload’ and the diversity of the teaching profession. The resource then shares advice for schools on action to take, and includes a case study from Rahi Popat, a teacher in Leicester.

Stress around exams and assessments is normal, but it can also impact negatively on college work and day-to-day life. Get practical advice on helping your students through these periods of stress. This resource provides information for college staff on how to identify if a student is struggling with exam and assessment stress, and how to support them.