If you work in a special school, it is easy to feel overlooked when the government announces its latest policy for education: it seems that ministers often forget we exist.

This was certainly the case when, in October 2018, the government outlined strategies for promoting the mental health and wellbeing of children within schools.

This guidance says that early intervention for mental health needs is paramount. We agree, of course, but the social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) pupils in our provision do not fit the criteria for early intervention; they often have complex mental health needs that require secondary-tier specialist services, such as child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs).

In addition, the Department for Education’s Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools guidance - focusing on clear expectations of behaviour, consequence systems and shared social norms - is arguably too prescriptive for our group of pupils. Because of the way their needs present behaviourally, SEMH pupils are disproportionately represented in exclusion data (Carroll and Hurry, 2018).

When focusing within a wholly SEMH setting, balancing the needs of children can bring unique behavioural challenges and this can impact the wellbeing of school staff. The practice the government recommends in this document would likely set children up to fail and set teachers up for an impossible task.

This got us thinking: what would better behaviour and SEMH provision look like in our setting? We knew there were particular areas we did well, and other areas that required work. So, we completed an audit to see where we might improve.

Once the audit had been completed, we needed a goal. We settled on the Wellbeing Award for Schools (WAS). Although this was not designed specifically for SEMH schools, there was no reason we could not aim to achieve everything that a mainstream school would.

WAS focuses on changing the long-term culture of a whole school, to place wellbeing and mental health at its heart. An evidence-based framework is used to drive change, review staff training and revise policies.

We set about trying to put wellbeing at the heart of our school culture using a transdisciplinary approach. To do this, we looked at what we already had access to.

Like many schools, we had already brought in an independent occupational therapy service to work with our pupils. Sometimes this was directly connected to needs outlined in children’s education, health and care plans, and, in other cases, we occasionally provided referrals for those children who did not have identified needs but who staff had raised concerns about.

We also brought in a primary mental health key worker who could liaise between school and Camhs, complete one-to-one work with children and provide group-based sessions and a family support group.

Alongside these existing structures, we started to recognise mental health first aid as a key priority in the school, so that staff were not just aware of the mental health needs of the children but also the mental health needs of their peers and their colleagues. As part of this, we extended the role of our primary mental health key worker to include supporting members of staff to promote their own mental wellness. There is now also a wider opportunity to identify early on when colleagues may need additional support, as part of our whole-school focus on wellbeing.

To communicate this focus, we made some important changes in our school’s messaging.

Firstly, colleagues already shared responsibility for completing fortnightly assemblies, but each assembly is now focused around an accessible theme relating to mental health, such as anxiety, loneliness or joy.

Secondly, children were encouraged and supported to develop a school motto through the school council. They came up with: “Listen, learn and be happy together.” Staff evaluated the messages contained within this: our children learn best when they feel listened to, when they are happy; and children feel listened to and happy when their emotional wellbeing and mental health are supported.

This then evolved into our new school vision statement: “Supporting everyone’s emotional wellbeing and mental health, so that they can be listened to, are happy together and ready to learn.”

Next, we wanted to get the wider school community on board with our change of direction. We recognise that schools do not exist in a vacuum but support children who have wider commitments, relationships and priorities.

Our parent support adviser completed research with parents into their priorities, challenges and circumstances in relation to their children. By doing this, we were then able to commit to whole-family interventions, as well as child-focused interventions in line with the transdisciplinary approach.

So, what effect have these steps had? Embedding these ideas and practices has resulted in a culture shift that promotes wellbeing for the whole school community, improving children’s capacity to learn while promoting positive, healthy relationships throughout the school and for wider stakeholders.

Staff are responding to the shift and are identifying good practice and celebrating the successes of their colleagues through a “shout out” board. Meanwhile, the primary mental health practitioner is now a go-to person for staff and pupils alike.

As a result of the changes, it has been much easier for us to make a shift to trauma-aware and trauma-focused teaching in light of recent events with Covid-19, with staff feeling more confident in coming forward and facilitating training themselves.

The new approach has also helped us to develop links with other schools that have undertaken the WAS, and increased our visibility as a school, making connections with the community. We now feel less overlooked and less forgotten about, confident that we are delivering on wellbeing in a way that works with the needs of our students.

Most importantly, by prioritising the wellbeing of all, through a whole-school approach, we are no longer focusing solely on some of the most vulnerable children in the North East of England, but on all the people around them as well. And, ironically, in broadening the focus, we have actually created an environment that is more conducive to supporting the wellbeing of those most vulnerable children. In achieving the WAS, it has given us not only focus but also ambition.

Moving forward, using research and best practice recommendations, we will continue to promote the emotional health and wellbeing of all stakeholders within the school. To continue to develop our priorities, the emotional health and wellbeing team are committed to stay abreast of the needs of our children, caregivers, staff and wider community because, as with all relationships, this takes work.

Nikki Rutter is a doctoral researcher at Durham University and a parent governor at Walworth Primary School in County Durham

This article originally appeared in the 7 August 2020 issue under the headline “Creating a culture of wellbeing at the centre of school”

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