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Helping Schools Respond to Trauma from Covid-19
Aston Le Walls, England, United Kingdom
Aim
My aim is to provide trauma-informed support to school staff to increase mental health and wellbeing across the whole school community.
My vision is to promote the mental health and wellbeing of staff, pupils and families, reduce toxic stress in school communities and create safe spaces for learning.
Why do schools need the Wellbeing in Schools Movement?
The Teacher Wellbeing Index 2019 (Education Support) paints a stark picture of rising mental health issues and a stress epidemic in the UK education workforce. The report highlighted:
34% of education professionals experienced a mental health issue in the past academic year and 78% experienced either behavioural, psychological or physical symptoms due to their work.
Senior leaders reported the highest levels of stress in 2019 (84%), up from 80% in 2018 and 75% in 2017.
73% of school teachers reported being stressed in 2019, compared with 64% in 2018 and 67% in 2017.
57% of education professionals have considered leaving the sector in the past two years due to health and wellbeing pressures.
It also identified a huge gap in support available for school staff to help them manage their mental health and wellbeing.
The Coronavirus pandemic has added even more pressure on school staff. A YouGov TeacherTrack survey has shown that 59% of primary school teachers and 49% of secondary teachers have expressed higher levels of stress and anxiety at the beginning of this summer term than usual.
One respondent said:
“I am never anxious about returning to school after the holidays. I am anxious now because everything is uncertain, we are in danger of dying from a pandemic and I don’t know what we are going to do to cope and support our students”
(Primary school teacher, Scotland)
The Wellbeing in Schools Movement CIC was setup to support schools to respond to the trauma and mental health difficulties experienced by their school community following the Coronavirus pandemic and lockdown. Supporting education professionals with their mental health and wellbeing is central to the WinS Movement.
What does this mean for children?
Relationships are key to children developing good mental health and science tells us that in order to be able to help others with their mental health, we must first look after our own.
If adults are not okay, children will not be okay...
Our approach is based on the research carried out by Dr Bruce Perry, which showed that children that are calm (regulate), are better able to form trusting relationships (relate) and this enables them to think and reason (The 3 R's: Regulate - Relate - Reason). Children who are unregulated are less able to relate to others, show poor executive function and are less able to learn.
Our model is The Five R’s Approach:
When adults are calm and grounded (Roots), and children feel safe (Regulate), loved and understood (Relate), they can learn new skills (Reason) and overcome challenges (Resilience).
Roots
Regulate
Relate
Reason
Resilience
How will the Wellbeing in Schools Movement help?
The WinS Movement is currently offering free support to schools via our Facebook group and trauma informed training delivered online in June 2020 that introduced The 5 R's Approach and is still available on replay.
But... We want to do more!
In September we plan to launch a membership for education professionals giving them access to an affordable, accessible and supportive platform that offers more than just training. It will provide:
monthly training and workshops on trauma, education and mental health delivered by Dr Alice Brown and experts in the UK and abroad
specialist topics on areas of SEND, for example, managing anxiety for students with autism, supporting executive functions and self-regulation for students with ADHD, responding to survival responses (fight/flight/freeze) of students who have experienced trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
tools and resources shared by the community to promote staff, pupil and parent mental health and wellbeing
small focus group sessions led by an educational psychologist, where staff can discuss concerns relating to their work, such as workload, pressure to achieve top grades, curriculum demands, teaching large classes, and responding to challenging behaviour and complex needs. We may not be able to change your situation but we can help you problem-solve ways forward and change the way you think and respond to the situation in a supportive space
an international school community where you can share good practice and learn from the good practice of others
What will your donation go towards?
With your help and the support of Back Her Business, we will be able to:
launch the membership platform in September 2020 at a reduced and locked in price (unless you cancel your membership) of £10 per month for the Core membership (will be £29 after the crowdfunder) and £50 for Plus membership (will be £69 after the crowdfunder)
kick off the launch with a webinar series by internationally renowned expert, Dr Daniel Hughes, who developed PACE, a therapeutic approach for children who have experienced trauma (Plus membership)
get experts in the field of trauma and mental health to deliver practical workshops on topics relevant to schools, children and families (Plus membership)
build a team of highly skilled psychologists to offer support in the community
What is Back Her Business?
We have joined the NatWest Back Her Business crowdfunding because it believes in closing the gender gap in business and it wants to do this by supporting female business owners who have an idea to launch their business.
Back Her Business is offering an amazing opportunity to match 50% of the funding raised through this crowdfunder, up to a total of £5000. This means that we just need to raise £5000 from 100 backers to achieve our crowdfunding goal!
NatWest Back Her Business has provided £5,000 of match funding
This project successfully funded on 2nd September 2020