Sometimes children can seem so mysterious, separate, impossible to know, even harder to help. Even to ourselves as children. As adults working with children, whatever our role, we do our best to be present and support them, at the same time as granting them the freedom...
What can we do to prevent molehills turning into mountains when overwhelmed and depleted specialist mental health services are unable to act rapidly enough to keep children safe and well? Facing a crisis in specialist mental health provision, concerned professionals inside and outside medicine are doing...
Last week (Dennis Campbell, Health Policy Editor Oct 25 2022) the Guardian reported on a research study into “social prescribing” as an approach to improved mental wellbeing. The trial, run by University College London and funded by the Prudence Trust, a charity which supports young...
Schools are coming under ever increasing pressure to support and include children who are struggling with many issues, pre-existing and those coming out of the Covid experience and it's associated losses and stresses. This is creating both old and new problems for the staff trying...
“There’s only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve; the fear of failure” Paulo Coelho de Souza What protects a child from fear of failure? It’s being able to see the way ahead with realistic optimism, building the sense of security that comes from meeting...
It’s the start of another school day. A ten year-old boy gets to the school door but on this day he just can’t go in, it’s simply too much. He does everything he can to stop it happening, hitting himself on the wall, refusing help,...
I watched the Panorama programme ‘Mental health: Young lives in crisis’ last night. It struck me on one hand as a message of hope over experience, on the other as a story of people reaching out in desperation as they struggle to stay afloat, treading...
From Ben Davis, Headteacher at St Ambrose Barlow Catholic High School, Swinton ( Twitter @bendavis ) Normally when I tweet (which is not often) I get a handful of likes and a couple of comments so I was entirely unprepared for the reaction to my short...
My article last week ‘It’s time to scrap exclusion from schools attracted a few replies on Twitter, among them: * This is interesting. Reasoned sensible argument about exclusions. Thank you Geoff.The need for change. * And prison of course. Let us not safeguard children. * I’d be all...
It’s time to scrap school exclusion. Why? Because Plan A isn’t working. A story - Plan B. A young man on the edge of adulthood, experiencing such severe panic attacks it’s causing him to disengage and putting his educational future at risk. As part of a school...
