Kidsmatter Primary School: Case Study

According to Daniel Goleman, “Emotional 'literacy' implies an expanded responsibility for schools in helping to socialize children. This daunting task requires two major changes: that teachers go beyond their traditional mission and that people in the community are more involved with schools as both active participants in children's learning and as individual mentors.” Goleman was studying the fact that teachers went beyond their mission to involve the community in satisfying the social part of students by increasing their capacity to learn. Students want and need attention; teachers must be aware of both the student’s in class behaviour and out of class behaviour to mould and fulfil a productive Citizen of the community. As stated by Martin

“Nearly 5 million children in the U.S. have some type of mental illness” (Goldberg). It is agreeable that there are many young children that deal with mental illness every day. Schools should be concerned for every student’s well being. Moreover, mental health is a part of a person’s overall “well being.” Therefore, schools need to make the mental health of students a stronger focus and implement plans to keep students mentally well and educated. To help create a positive, mental health aware environment where students feel open to seek help, high school students should be educated on how to be mentally healthy, be given a safe place to seek help, and be encouraged to monitor and maintain their mental health. Mental illness and mental health care need to be a more eminent priority in our society, starting with high schools.

Teachers and staff will be trained to tell the if a student is experiencing symptoms of any type of mental health disorder. For example, if a student is having irregular mood swings or a fluctuation in weight, which are common symptoms of anxiety and depression. In the article, “Why Schools Should Screen Their Students' Mental Health”, it says,“If we made mental health part of the usual health system of a school, then it becomes more normal…”. If a student sees a positive outlook on mental health they would be opened to getting help. On some media platforms, mental health is portrayed as something to be ashamed of or a evil quality to posses. Mental health isn’t evil, it’s how the person deals with it that's important. Yes, if not treated it can cause negative effects but with the help from the community these children can live relatively normal lives. Children and adults struggle to comprehend the severity of mental illness, which causes them to avoid any form of treatment. In the future, mental health should become a thing not to be ashamed of. A person who broke a bone would go to the hospital right away, not wait for it to heal on its own. If you wouldn’t wait for a physical injury, why would you wait for

Preparing students for life success, requires a balanced education that includes social and emotional education. It is important that families, schools and communities come together to achieve this. This article is researching the positive effects, of social and emotional learning of students in kindergarten to eighth grade. This article summarizes three reviews of research on the impact of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on elementary school and middle age school students. These programs promote social and emotional skills (Weissberg, Taylor, Schellinger, Payton, Pachan, Dymcicki and Durlak, 2008). The SEL programs showed many benefits in both school and after-school settings for students with and without behavioral and

It is estimated that one in every five youth experience mental illnesses that interfere with their everyday routines (“NAMI”). Mental health in the United States is a growing epidemic that needs to be solved. Youth with mental illnesses may never know that they have one; screenings for mental health are not something a lot of people take advantage of. Schools are a place where youth develop the most. In order for this to happen, society needs to make schools feel welcoming and provide support for those who need help. While some people do not believe mental illnesses exist, schools should require mental health screenings in order to prevent future violent situations, educate their staff, and do more to make students feel comfortable.

The children and their primary schools report, also known as the Plowden Report, was published in 1967 by the Central Advisory Council and written by Bridget Plowden. The aim of the report was to consider Primary Education in all of its aspects and the transition from primary to secondary education. The Report took four years to write and was published just after the post Second World War. At this time many people believed that environmental influences played a significant role in the development of students. (Bartlett et al., 2001).

Thus, examinees must understand common school-based intervention programs, such as bullying prevention and promoting good health. The foundation of school psychology delves into the importance of culture, background and individual values. Examinees must demonstrate understanding of research design, evaluation and statistics. Finally, the children’s service section covers instructional strategies, curricular accommodations and effective group interventions. In fact, examinees must clearly understand school-based intervention skills and techniques. They must also be familiar with child and adolescent psychopathology, such as common symptoms of mental health problems and how these impact a student’s

which have the potential to impair learning capacity. Leavers et al (1997, pg. 15) describes children with high levels of well being as feeling “…like fish in water”, in their educational environments with the ability to maximise their learning potential. The EYFS (2006, 37-41) places PSED at the heart of all learning areas, but thrusts a more explicit emphasis on emotional well-being. Practitioners are now expected to focus on children’s emotional health more directly, enabling children to understand and manage their feelings. This emphasis extends to working with families in the Every Child Matters Framework.

While Reading the book, Lost at School, written by Ross W. Greene, one can appreciate the clear focus and overall direction for teaching different students with maladaptive behaviors. For teachers, those children present the greatest obstacle in education. A student’s mental health problems allude to the challenges in teaching. It’s hard enough to keep a large group of adolescents on task in the first place, let alone when there may be one or more children with maladaptive behaviors in a single class, who have a hard time regulating their focus levels like the typical student. The number of disruptive students has seemingly increased through the years. Now studies show that, “About 10 percent of the school population—9 to 13 million children—struggle with mental health problems. In a typical classroom of 20, chances are good that one or two students are dealing with serious psychosocial stressors relating to poverty, domestic violence, abuse and neglect, trauma, or a psychiatric disorder. These children represent the most challenging students in our classrooms today.” (Rappaport and Minahan) To combat those alarming statistics, Ross Greene’s informational book talks about how to improve a child’s behavior, while embracing the patience it takes to effectively communicate with such children.

A part of the research document developed by the Catholic Education Office of Melbourne was an audit tool that can assist schools in the implementation and maintenance of Social Emotional Learning. There are seven areas in which schools need to reflect on their progress and establishment which are; Creating a School/Community Vision for a Whole School Approach to SEL, Assessing Current Needs, Auditing Current Approaches and Resources, Choosing Evidence based Approaches and Resources, Planning and Integrating a Whole School Approach to SEL, Ongoing Professional Learning for the School Community and Sustaining the Social Emotional Learning Initiative (CEOM. 2007).

Transition: First, let us discuss the danger of not including mental health in students’ education.

The World Health Organisation (2014) defines Mental Health “as a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community” (para. 1). Mental health refers to an individual’s psychological, emotional and social wellbeing; it has the ability affect people’s perceptions, thought, feelings, actions and capacity to respond to change, stresses and challenges within their lives (Headspace, 2013, para. 1). It influences how individuals perceive themselves, their resilience, life decisions and the people around them. Maintaining a stable, healthy and positive mental state is crucial for all individuals throughout their lives in order to avoid developing mental health problems and illnesses. The following essay will address Mental Health and why it is considered one of the challenges facing PDHPE teachers in the 21st Century, it has a major aim of exploring how the subject of PDHPE can address the challenges of the wider community and how classroom teachers can address mental health within the schooling environment.

About 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 experiences a severe mental disorder at least once in their lifetime. Over one-third of students with a mental health condition, age 14­–21 drops out—the highest dropout rate of any disability group. With these statistics, it shows how many people are not gaining support and are just giving up because they cannot find convenient help. If this issue is shown in the classroom, then the awareness rates will rise, making more establishments for support and treatment.

Pre-adolescence is a crucial stage in a child’s life because it is during this stage that kids can learn the coping mechanism that can prevent complications later on in life (Britton et al., 2014). Some children and adolescents may not have the opportunity to seek proper mental health care during their childhood. This may be due to parents overworking or simply not being able to afford quality mental health care services (Bucci et al., 2016). However, schools can serve children and adolescents as a

Since 2000, various PP interventions at many schools have been adopted (Huppert & Cooper, 2014). Schools play an increasingly important role in assisting children to develop cognitive, social and emotional skills (Waters, 2011), and since most of children’s waking hours of the day are spent in school, it is a natural setting for wellbeing to be educated, recognised and encouraged (Proctor, 2014). The children are facing increasing levels of depression and distress worldwide (Shoshani & Steinmetz, 2013), and therefore it is critical that the children are equipped with skills that not only help them to prevent mental illnesses, but also allow them to have higher order cognitive, social and emotional skills that would lead them to have meaningful and good lives (Waters, 2011; White, 2016).