Sometimes being a teacher feels like doing loads of different jobs - social worker, pastor, sports coach, event organiser and more.
After 10 years as a secondary headteacher, I decided to actually do a different job. I made a slightly unusual change last October by moving from education to the third sector, to join the leadership team of Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH).
It’s a new role within the organisation which is Scotland’s leading mental health charity - and what drew me to SAMH was the opportunity to drive our national work on improving the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people. As a school leader, I saw that wellbeing, equality and inclusion have to be central to the provision of a good education for all.
Every teacher will know we are in the midst of a mental health crisis. Children and families are facing a range of pressures, made worse by a global pandemic, climate anxiety and a cost of living that isn’t coming down. The World Health Organisation has classified stress as the health epidemic of the 21st century.
Schools, as ever, are at the sharp end of things. It’s no surprise we’re seeing increased difficulties with attendance, engagement and behaviour alongside a rising number of young people telling us that they’re experiencing mental health problems. Add to this significant concerns around teacher and staff wellbeing coupled with well-documented budget issues and we find ourselves in a really hard place.
Education system needs ‘injection of hope’
At SAMH, we believe in the power of hope - as a protective factor in mental health and as something to which everyone is entitled. The education system needs an injection of hope at this time.
I was fortunate to be involved in national reform programmes such as school empowerment and the Muir review, with the aim of contributing to positive change. Subsequent work by Withers, Hayward and the “national conversation” added to the momentum for departing from the status quo and redesigning an education experience fit for the 2020s and beyond. This gave hope to many that we would embrace transformational change towards a system that truly puts learners at the centre.
Reform was “paused” and even feels like it’s at risk of moving backwards. In 2020, all the talk was of “building back better” - but it certainly doesn’t feel like we’ve done that, judging by any metric I can think of right now.
So where is the hope? For me it is simple - let’s put wellbeing first. Without wellbeing, nothing else really matters, and this should drive policy and practice in schools and beyond.
This underpinned my approach to school leadership and is the focus I have brought to this new role with SAMH. I am able to present the reality faced in schools and education settings and help us adapt our strategies and programmes to this.
Schools are central to their communities and to the lives of young people. They have a major role to play in nurturing positive mental health. But they can’t do this alone.
School staff and pupils ‘need more support’
We certainly need to see more support for pupils and for staff, in and outside of school. We need better links between schools, primary care, other statutory services and community support. One thing I wish I’d known when I was in school was how much is already there. SAMH has a lot to offer - do get in touch - and so, too, do many other organisations.
The provision of school counselling has been a step forward as part of a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing, and an increase in staff training opportunities is welcome. There are a range of tools and resources, for example from Education Scotland, to support young people’s learning in this area and to help them when they are struggling. The Scottish government has provided dedicated resource to local authorities to support mental health and we need to make sure that schools get their share.
As a teacher I knew that wellbeing was so important to pupils and to staff, but I worried if we were doing enough and what was really possible in the face of competing priorities and limited resources. Now, from my new perspective looking in, I am clearer than ever that wellbeing needs to be the main focus - everything else, including attainment, stems from that.
We need big, systemic change. However, with others, we can make smaller changes to boost wellbeing in the meantime. And small changes add up over time. My hope is that that offers a little bit of hope.
Billy Burke is a former secondary headteacher and president of School Leaders Scotland who was recently appointed head of development and innovation at Scottish Action on Mental Health, better known as SAMH
