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Understand schools’ duties & early signs of mental health. Learn to support students with adjustments. Provided by ISEND TLP.
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How to support secondary aged pupils with mental health/anxiety to achieve in school
Aims of the workshop • To understand schools’ statutory duties for supporting children and young people with mental health • To develop knowledge of the potential early signs of mental health and what reasonable adjustments could be used to support students within school.
Who Are We ISEND Teaching and Learning Provision (TLP) Rhiannon Gordon (Deputy Service Manager) Matthew Hickman (Service teacher) What Do We Do? Provide interim packages of education for children too sick to attend school
Pupil/student passport • Early identification tool • Clearer understanding • Quick response and the implementation of reasonable adjustments
Important information about me • Add any pictures you choose to the page using clip art or importing your own photos, etc. • Put in here all the really important stuff, like any diagnosis you have such as • Communication Difficulties, • Asperger Syndrome, • Tourrette’s, • ADHD or ADD, • Asthma or allergies, • physical difficulties, • visual difficulties • hearing difficulties. • You could write a bit about how that affects you, if you want to.
Things I am interested in and things or people that are important to me You could put pictures of your interests or photos of people who are important to you on this page.
Things I enjoy • Put on here everything you are good at. Put in photos of yourself or clip art pictures to decorate the page. • If you’re having difficulty thinking of something, think about what other people would say you are good at. • Talk about subjects and unstructured times • Think about both school and home
Things I finddifficult • Put in here everything you think you find difficult, need to do better or need help with. Put in a photo or clip art picture.
How I communicate (and any difficulties I have with communicating) • Write about any difficulties you have in communicating with people at school. Perhaps you find it difficult to: • talk to people you don’t know very well • understand jokes • understand if people talk too quickly • talk to people in a group • Also write about any ways you like to communicate – using picture exchange or signing for example.
How I need you to communicate with me to help me understand • For example, do you need the teachers to: • talk more slowly, • use easier words, • call you by name to make sure you hear what they say • stand near to you when they speak give instructions • use signing or picture communication?
Things that help me to work well • Put in here anything that needs to be provided to help you work well, such as: a laptop, voice recognition software, visual timetables, visual cues, task management boards, a dictaphone, large type and any other differentiated materials. • You might need to ask your teachers or teaching assistants to help you with this bit.
Things that make it difficult for me to work well • Think of anything that stops you working well – perhaps • particular noises or too much noise • smells or • bright lights for example. • Maybe you can’t work well if you have to share a desk with another pupil or you’re too far away from the whiteboard. • These are just examples. Make sure you write about yourself.
If I’m stressed I... • Write about what you feel and how you might behave if you are stressed. For example, do you: • get angry, • go quiet, • stop working, • shout at people, • chew things, • tap things?
If I’m stressed it helps if I can... • Write down what helps when you are stressed. For example, do you like to: • go somewhere quiet, • talk about it to a teacher, • sit quietly and rest in the classroom, • look at a book about your special interest?
Ways in which people working with me can help me • Write down anything that people at school can do to help you with any of your difficulties.
My school experience • Think about both primary and secondary school • Think about both structured and unstructured times • When things were good and when things were bad. • Think about friendships
Schools Statutory Responsibilities for Supporting Children with Medical Needs Children with medical needs (physical and mental) have the right to equality of opportunities and reasonable adjustments (Equalities Act 2010). Key documentation: Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions Statutory Guidance April 2015
Developing a school Policy • Governing bodies should ensure that a policy for supporting students with medical conditions is reviewed regularly and is available to school staff and parents. Schools should have a named person that has overall responsibility for policy implementation. • The responsibility for pupils with medical conditionscan be given to governor, a head teacher, a committee or other member of staff.
School Policy must include: • Ensure equal opportunities for all students – full access to education, PE, school trips. • Give parents/pupils confidence in the school’s ability to provide effective support • Identify collaborative working arrangements with other agencies, showing how they will work in partnership to ensure that the needs of pupils are met effectively. • Contact the school health service in the case of any child who has a medical condition that may require support at school. • They should ensure that staff are properly trained to provide the support medical needs. • Awareness of child’s condition including cover staff and supply teachers. • Monitoring of Individual Health Care Plans. Are you aware of your schools medical needs policy?
Ofsted Their inspection framework places a clear emphasis on meeting the needs of disabled children and pupils with SEND, and considering the quality of teaching and the progress made by these pupils. Inspectors are already briefed to consider the needs of pupils with chronic or long-term medical conditions alongside these groups and to report on how well their needs are being met. Schools are expected to have a policy dealing with medical needs and to be able to demonstrate that this is implemented effectively.
Why is it important to identify signs of mental health quickly? • Schools are on the frontline when it comes to mental health in children/young people. • It is important to recognise mental health problems early as it can prevent escalation. • Long-term absences due to health problems affect children’s educational attainment, impact on their ability to integrate with their peers and affect their general wellbeing and emotional health.
What can be the early signs of mental health problems/conditions?
How can we support students with mental health needs? Case study activity: • Read the case study on your tables and use the reasonable adjustment document to help you identify possible reasonable adjustments that could have been put in place for this child. • Discuss on your tables if there is a student you have put reasonable adjustments in place for and/orif there’s a student you have in mind that you will consider reasonable adjustments for? What might these be?
Unacceptable Practice • Assume that every child with the same condition requires the same treatment • Ignore the views of the child or their parents; or ignore medical evidence or opinion • Send children with mental health conditions home frequently or prevent them from staying for normal school activities. • If the child becomes ill, send them to the school office or medical room unaccompanied or with someone unsuitable;
Unacceptable Practice • Require parents to attend school to administer medication or provide medical support to their child. No parent should have to give up working because the school is failing to support their child’s medical needs; or • Prevent children from participating, or create unnecessary barriers to children participating in any aspect of school life, including school trips, eg by requiring parents to accompany the child.
Identifying and Supporting social, emotional and mental health Gillian Nicholson -Head of Individual Learning - Gildredge House
You and your staff are the most important resource • Action to improve the mental health of teachers is needed: • A study completed in 2016 showed that almost 70% of school staff surveyed believe their job have adversely impacted their mental or physical health.
The current situation • 1 in 8 children of school age • 96% of staff • £300 million for new mental health support
Scenarios Scenario 1 One of your members of staff completes a safeguarding referral for a student (Year 8). They have been informed by friends of the student that they have been harming themselves in the toilets at school. What would you do? Scenario 2 A student (Reception age) is consistently acting in an aggressive manner. They won't share or take turns. They lash out at peers. They become upset and emotional very easily. Scenario 3 You have an in year admission (Year 9). The student is an adopted child. You have no information about why they have moved schools. The student displays defiant and oppositional behaviour, refusing to go into lessons and arguing with peers. Scenario 4 A student (Year 5) is finding friendships really difficult. You are aware that parents have split up and their father has started a relationship with another person.
What have we done? • Assess, plan, do, review • Mental health champion • Mental health first aid • Making staff mental health part of CPD • Nurture and Pastoral support including a nurture room in primary, support centre and behavioural referral area in secondary • THRIVE • Boxall profiling • Counsellor • ELSA • Bereavement • Coffee mornings • Triple P Parenting • SWIFT • Accessing external support agencies
Peacehaven Community School Ann-Marie Waite – Assistant Head - SENCO
Identification of students • At PCS we have a system of referral called BESST – we look at patterns of attendance, what support is already in place and what other interventions are needed. • From working with our students we feel that anxiety can be a result of a SEND need, fear of failing, struggling with classwork and how the young person perceives themselves within their peer group/class. Inability to express how they feel (this can be overwhelming) leads to high levels of absence. Behavioural issues are often a sign of anxiety and results in students spending time in isolation or being excluded. .
Support • Once a young person has been identified as requiring support we meet with the parent/carer and the student. • We carry out a pupil voice to assess areas of strengths and where the young person feels they need support. • The young person and parents come up to the LSC and meet the members of staff. • We provide the students with a time out card that they can use to come to LSC in times of high anxiety. • We then plan in sessions with staff – to work with the student to help develop coping strategies which will work for them in class.
Adjustments • For persistent absences we arrange after school visits with parents to spend some time in the LSC area and for them to become comfortable walking around the school. • We have students on P/T tables that use the LSC • We will meet the student and reception and update parents/carers. • We will check in with the student during the day and walk them back to be collected. • We always inform teaching staff if a student is attending a lesson and will stay with them for a short while they settle. • Praise and encouragement
Outcomes • 4 students have improved attendance by 100%. The majority of students have improved attendance between 21-64%. • 3 students who had never attend PCS due to anxiety have been accessing the LSC and their attendance has gone from 0-64% • 50% increase in students that have used our support are now attending all mainstream lessons apart from cover lessons.
Outcomes • ‘I would have failed Year 11 if I couldn’t come here….’ • ‘Why wouldn’t I want to come here? Someone actually listens to me and I feel safe.’ • ‘I hate school so I don’t come but I will come here….’ • ‘The LSC is really useful for new students who don’t want to be out in the corridors. Or if you’ve had a really rough day there’s a teacher you can talk to.’ • ‘It calms me down coming to the LSC, and I get more work done in here than anywhere else. I also get help with my work. They take care of me and are very welcoming. When I’m having a rough time at school they help me’. • ‘It’s really nice and good to have a place to go when we’re stressed or upset and to get on with work without disturbances. We are also reassured when things go wrong or when we have a bad day’
