Many teaching students across the UK were months into their initial teacher education (ITE) when the Covid lockdowns hit, and others have begun their studies during the pandemic. This posed challenges for many student teachers, including isolation, and shortened and disrupted placements.

However, students here at the University of Edinburgh were able to benefit from the first year of a unique partnership between children’s mental health charity Place2Be and Moray House School of Education and Sport. 

This offers student teachers across all ITE programmes access to mental health and wellbeing teaching provided by a dedicated Place2Be clinician. Student teachers are also able to access mental health expertise and reflective sessions, known as Place2Think, for their own emotional health and wellbeing.

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After their extraordinary year, I spoke to two students, “EM” and “JC”, about how the year has impacted their perceptions of teaching and how having access to this partnership helped them retain their passion for teaching.

How has this year changed your perceptions of the role of teachers in children’s lives?

EM: “Some things that have happened have made me re-evaluate my role as a teacher. One time that springs to mind was when a boy in my mentor’s class had snapped at another pupil at his table and the teacher had shouted at him. But afterwards, he pulled the child aside and apologised for shouting, and asked the child what was going on.

“The teacher took the time to try to understand what was causing the behaviour, and it turned out he was very tired -  he had been up very late with his single mum who worked multiple jobs - so the teacher offered to meet with the boy once a week to check in. That helped me realise that [as a teacher] you’re a key player in the children and families’ lives.”

JC: “Similarly, I got the chance to attend online parents’ night and the family of a girl in my class came up on the screen. The girl was shy in class but we had built a relationship over the weeks.

“It was when the family said, ‘Hi Mr C, we’ve heard so much about you. Thank you for everything’ that I realised your work in the classroom affects families as well, and as a teacher you are part of a little ecosystem in a place and you make a big difference.”

How do you think having extra support from Place2Think through the Place2Be and Moray House School of Education and Sport partnership has affected your experience?

JC: “Teachers manage so many types of relationships in the classroom and I think having the space with Place2Think helps you really understand yourself, where you’ve come from and how you’ve gotten there as a person.

“It gives teachers, and has given me, the kinds of skills to realise hard feelings will come up in school, as well as the skills to handle them when they do.”

EM: “On the whole, having those regular [Place2Think] sessions, opening up and being vulnerable has caused me to have more genuine connections with people in my life.

“Now I am thinking about how I can apply that to teaching by being more honest and open as a teacher, and how that can then foster more genuine connections with the students, as well as parents and other teachers.”

How do you see the importance of the role of mental health support for teachers and within schools?

EM: “Having sessions like Place2Think, as teachers, would 100 per cent have a beneficial impact for teaching. Personally, I feel I have learned a lot about emotional intelligence and gained a lot myself through these sessions.”

JC: “Therapists and other relational professionals have supervision because emotional burnout is so recognised. I think all teachers need professional mental health supervision and, in doing so, would hugely improve teacher retention and improve classrooms everywhere.”

The partnership between Place2Be and Moray House School of Education and Sport has shown the difference it can make to offer student teachers more skills to create mentally healthy classrooms and also a dedicated space for reflective conversations that allow them to shape their professional teacher identities.

It’s important to continue to build on this success in the new school year and keep supporting students to think about their own mental health, ultimately benefiting a new generation of teachers, and the children and young people they work with.

Kathleen Forbes is a Place2Be clinician based at Moray House School of Education and Sport, at the University of Edinburgh