In preparation for Mental Health Awareness Week our blog this week focuses on our top tips for supporting the mental health of your pupils.

There are still free places available for you to join tootoot’s six-week programme that aims to enhance the mental health of your school. You can find more information about our programme at the bottom of the page.

Mental health is a growing concern in the UK and data shows us that one in ten children and young people under the age of 16 had a diagnosable mental disorder. The most common problems are emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression and conduct disorders.

Just a few simple initiatives in school can encourage positive mental health in your school.

We work with schools every day to make this a reality. Pulling together some of the experience we have working with schools we have created some top tips to help you to encourage positive mental health in your school.

Talk about mental health regularly

Having regular discussions, assemblies and in-class conversations about mental health and the importance of speaking to someone if they have a worry or concern can help children to feel more comfortable and break down barriers around this topic. The assemblies, lesson activities and fact sheets you receive as part of tootoot’s Mental Health programme make this even easier.

Create an open environment

Every child is different, and each will feel comfortable talking about their worries and concerns in different ways. There will be some children that are comfortable approaching an adult to talk whilst others may be more confident writing their thoughts down in a letter or message on tootoot.

Find new ways to involve your pupils

Pupil led initiatives can be the most effective in-school. Not only will pupils feel that you are committed to listening to their views and tailoring support to their needs, but they will develop vital skills too. The pupils could conduct mental health and wellbeing audits using tootoot’s tootmood app, run drop-in sessions for pupils and lead assemblies or presentations for pupils.

Give your staff support too

Your staff can only support the mental heath of pupils if they are supported and have good mental health themselves. When staff have good levels of mental health and wellbeing they will feel more motivated and engaged, and are more resilient to daily troubles – making it easier to bounce back from any set-backs and challenges.

Remember to set time aside to check-in with your staff, create a culture of openness between everyone ensuring that staff feel anyone could provide a listening ear should they need one. Setting up wellbeing initiatives for staff are also great ways to engage staff. Ideas such as daily step challenges, free fruit, yoga or Q&As with a healthcare professional are low cost (or even free!) and don’t take a lot of time to organise but can have a big impact for your staff.

Sign-up for Tootoot’s free six-week programme

At tootoot we believe that wellbeing and academic attainment go hand in hand, which is why we have created a free six-week programme that aims to give schools to tools to support the mental health of your school community.

Available to the first 100 school sign-ups, the six-week programme involves a bespoke plan for your school, free access to tootoot and our mood-tracking app tootmood, as well as a host of mental health and wellbeing teaching resources!

The aim of the programme is to give your school the tools to enhance the mental health and wellbeing in your school your six weeks with tootoot includes:

• Free targeted resources to support conversations about mental health in your school
• Access to tootmood – the simple feedback app that makes it easy to track the mental health of your pupils
• Access to tootoot – the pupil voice software that gives pupils a simple and trusted way to talk about any concerns

To claim your place sign-up here and we will be in contact shortly after.