Mental health support is needed more than ever in schools.
On the 7th of February, parliament discussed adding mindfulness to the curriculum in schools. MP Charlotte Nichols put the discussion to parliament as a request to bring mindfulness to all schools across the UK. This was in response to the Peace in Mind campaign which raised £50,000 to bring mindfulness to schools in Warrington after the tragic death of school girl Brianna Ghey.
The Minister for Schools, Damian Hinds, responded by acknowledging the many benefits to mindfulness. As an actionable promise, he has offered all state schools and colleges a grant to train a senior mental health lead by next year in England. The training supports the leads to assess and implement intervention, which can include mindfulness.
The minister further explained how the biggest ever programme is being funded to understand approaches to improving pupil mental wellbeing.
The programme includes a trial which is testing three approaches to improving mental wellbeing in school:
- Daily five-minute mindfulness-based exercises
- Daily five-minute relaxation exercises
- A new curriculum programme for mental wellbeing.
Fantastically, more than 300 schools have been involved.
Shockingly, some children are waiting up to 4 and a half years to be seen by a mental health specialist, and the debate highlighted the shortage of therapists.
If young people are on such lengthy waitlists, it is integral for our children to learn mindfulness tools and practices in school settings and beyond.
Obviously, mindfulness can cover a range of practices, but the debate did highlight that schools are already increasingly doing a form of yoga to calm classes down.
Yoga for stress and anxiety in children has been researched in depth. The Minded Institute is pleased to see such funding being granted towards mental health in schools. We will be keeping an eye on how this funding evolves.
Do you have experience working with mindfulness in schools? Let us know.
Read the transcript of the full debate here.
