‘A mental health system that relies on the goodwill of teachers to compensate for the lack of support in the rest of the community takes the p***’

Children need to be heard, loved, valued and to feel safe. If these fundamental needs aren’t met, then working on their resilience is like building a house without foundations, says the government’s former mental-health champion
27th June 2016, 4:50pm

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‘A mental health system that relies on the goodwill of teachers to compensate for the lack of support in the rest of the community takes the p***’

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/mental-health-system-relies-goodwill-teachers-compensate-lack-support-rest-community-takes
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“Picking yourself up after you fall.”

“You can never achieve it if you are protected from every bad thing.”

“The only way to get it is to face some adversity.”

“It can actually only be built on a foundation of support.”

“People who know they are loved tend to have it.”

“It is what arises out of having the space to contemplate the consequences of your actions.”

“Learning from your mistakes.”

“It is the responsibility of the entire community - a joint effort.”

“Seems like a word that’s used every time the DfE introduces an unpopular policy.”

“No one knows.”

At Friday night’s TES Schools Awards, I asked every education professional I had a conversation with to define one word (because I know how to PARTY). That word was “resilience”.

Above are a selection of their responses.

Key principle

Resilience has been a key principle in education policy under Nicky Morgan. Schools have been asked to demonstrate how they are instilling resilience in their pupils. There are calls for Ofsted to place more emphasis on resilience in their wellbeing criteria. The problem is, no-one seems to be able to agree on what “resilience” means.

From a mental health point of view, I don’t believe resilience can be achieved without a safety net. While we can nurture skills that make us better able to deal with the pressures of everyday life, true resilience runs much deeper than that. The most resilient people I know have a network of support around them and they aren’t afraid to ask for help when they need it.

Fundamental needs

In order to prepare my forthcoming report for politicians, I consulted with several prominent psychologists to establish what children’s universal, basic needs are (and why, perhaps, they are not being met in our schools). While the answers differed slightly among the experts I interviewed, there was more consensus than disagreement. All people, and especially children, need to be heard, loved, valued, to have a sense of purpose and of their place within a wider community, and to feel safe. If these fundamental needs are not met, working on their resilience is akin to attempting to build a house without laying the foundations.

Life and society has changed so that it is increasingly difficult for us to fulfil our universal human needs. The pace of life, current political landscape and lack of community means that many of us feel lonely, devalued and uncertain.

For children, the changes to the education system mean the odds are stacked against them. Stressed and overworked teachers, a narrow curriculum where fewer subjects are valued and acknowledged, decreased play time, spiralling class sizes, rigorous testing - all of these conspire against the goal of making children feel safe, valued and giving them a sense of identity and purpose in an ever-more competitive world.

Taking the piss

For all the talk of teaching resilience in the classroom, it’s my belief that education policy since 2010 has sought to destroy the things that might naturally make children more resilient. Furthermore, the wider rhetoric, which also talks of “character” and “grit” as solutions to young people’s inability to deal with the realities of modern life, apportions blame to the people who are victims of a culture which is at odds with the human condition.

The only thing standing between education policy and young people are teachers, many of whom have fought to mediate the potential impact of resilience-destroying directives. But, as I’ve said at countless DfE meetings and conferences, a mental health system that relies endlessly on the goodwill of teachers to compensate for the lack of support in the rest of the community takes the piss. (FYI, if I die, this is the quote I’d like to be remembered for. As well as “I was proper angry”, because I want to be credited with making something so quintessentially Essex a headline in a broadsheet.)

Perhaps, as well as acknowledging the importance of individual resilience, we should place equal stock in making the world a better place for children. For, in the words of Jiddu Krishnamurti: “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

PS: huge congratulations to all the winners on Friday night, but especially to Limes College (alternative provision school of the year) and Natalie Scott (teacher blogger of the year) - I was rooting for you!

Natasha Devon is the former government mental health champion for schools and founder of the Body Gossip Education Programme and the Self-Esteem Team. She tweets as @NatashaDevonMBE

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