Bitesize Research: Impact Of Food Insecurity On Students

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! This week I was really interested in seeing a report of some research being published by the Institute of Education about how food insecurity, the use of food banks and the cost of living crisis influences student attainment and mental health.

Objectives: To understand the impact of food insecurity and reliance on food banks on student attainment and mental health.

Summary: 

• The authors of the study discovered that students whose families rely on food banks on average achieve half a grade lower than expected in their GCSEs.

• The report also looked at the mental health of the parents and students who started using food banks during the pandemic. 63% of parents and 53% of students reported poor mental health, compared to 33% and 44% respectively of those who do not rely upon food banks.

• The authors conclude that this is an ongoing legacy of Covid and the cost-of-living crisis. They also remark that many food insecure students might not technically be categorised as requiring free school meals.

• Overall, they conclude that 1 in 10 students nationally could be classified as food insecure.

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How might we support students who could be in difficult situations with food insecurity and the cost of living crisis?

• How well do I know my pupil premium students? What might their specific needs be?

• What support do I need further to work with students who might need help?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Supporting Students With Exam Anxiety

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week! With exams well underway for IB and coming up for GCSE, and following a bitesize post I wrote last year on exam anxiety and it’s relationship to exam performance, I was interested to see an article in TES about how to support students with exam anxiety.

Objectives: To understand how to support students with exam anxiety

Summary: 

• The article states that it may be that a quarter of students suffer from exam anxiety - defined as an ‘anxiety condition focused on evaluative situations’.

• They suggest some of the following research-informed strategies to support students who may be dealing with this:

• Expressive writing - asking students to write about their thoughts and feelings openly as possible about the task they are about to undertake. 

• Emotional reappraisal - explaining to students that the physical feelings they are experiencing e.g. faster heartbeat also occur in pleasant situations. This can support students to understand that for some, therefore, anxiety is transient and normal. They are also keen to stress, though, that for some students, more severe anxiety requires clinical support.

• Cognitive reappraisal techniques - this requires a longer-term reexamination of the causes, thoughts and feelings that are associated with exam anxiety, then challenging them to seek information that contradicts their negative thoughts.

• They also argue that at a whole school level, improving ‘feedback literacy’ can support to alleviate test anxiety. This involves getting students to really deeply understand what we are assessing, and the purpose of assessing and getting feedback on it.

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently noticing students’ exam anxiety manifest?

• How am I currently supporting students with exam anxiety?

• What support do I need to improve my practice with working with students with exam anxiety?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you! 

Bitesize Research: Mental Health Issues In Teenagers

By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week so far. This week I was interested to read about a recent study about the prevalence of mental health problems in young people aged 16 and 17 conducted by the Institute of Education and the Sutton Trust.

Objectives: To understand the current prevalence of mental health problems in young people aged 16 and 17.

Summary: 

• The report highlights that 44% of young people aged 16 and 17 are reaching or exceeding the threshold for poor mental health

• This is up from 35% in 2017 and 23% in 2007

• The report authors say Covid is likely to have sped up or exacerbated the situation, but that underlying factors and systemic issues are likely to have a big impact

• The report also reveals some other characteristics that have a high prevalence of poor mental health. In particular, students who identify as non-binary were much more likely to self-harm. 

• The study makes clear that a large proportion of young people also reported that they had very low motivation.

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• How am I currently supporting students with their mental health and motivation?

• What strategies can I use to support the mental health of the young people in our school community?

• What support do I need for this?

 

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Bitesize Research: Impact Of Sexual Violence On Mental Health

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope you’re all having a good week so far. Following on from our keynote training on T2 INSET day, I was really interested to see some research as reported by the the Institute of Education about the links between sexual violence and mental health. 

Objectives: To consider the impact of sexual violence on serious mental health issues in young people

Summary: 

• Serious mental health problems amongst 17 year olds could fall by as much as 16.8% for girls and 8.4% for boys if they had not experienced sexual violence

• Out of near 10,000 students involved in this study nearly 1,000 girls and 260 boys had experienced a sexual assault or an unwanted sexual approach

• The report noted that several serious mental health problems were considerably higher in those reporting sexual assaults or an unwanted sexual approach

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflections arising from this that might be helpful to consider are: 

• What is the role of education in this equation?

• How confident do I feel in being able to support students disclosing their experiences of sexual violence?

• What support would I like further on this?

Please do get in touch if you would like to talk further about this - I’d love to hear from you!

Tips For Being More Mindful In School

By Paul Mulvihill

I spent most of Sunday night thinking about the ‘return to school’ and although I felt excited, my mind was certainly racing at a hundred miles per hour thinking about the term ahead. So using mindfulness was certainly something I needed to focus on to be fully present and absorb all the useful information that an Inset day offers. I have included mindfulness in a few of my training sessions and I often refer to the video here, I find that the more I use mindfulness the more effective it becomes.

The article here from the charity Mind calls mindfulness a ‘skill’ and talks about needing to practice mindfulness regularly for it to be impactful. You can practice mindfulness in a number of different ways and you can incorporate these into your daily routine relatively easily. There are a whole host of activities/practices in the article here but the one that stands out to me the most is the ‘5 Senses exercise’, which simply put is noticing things you can see, hear, feel, smell and taste.

In my last post I shared the resources here, which again can be utilised in PD or even during lessons. With longer lesson times I will often get my students to stand up and stretch half way through the lesson to help energise them and refocus their attention. I have found that it gives students a short respite and also helps them become more productive directly after.

Some key thoughts to take away:

• How can I, as a teacher, become more mindful?

• How can I incorporate mindfulness into my daily routine?

• How can I support my students with practising mindfulness?

If anyone wants to talk about mindfulness or tell me about good resources or activities you are doing with students I would love to hear from you.

Bitesize Research: Impact Of Pandemic On Mental Health

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone’s had a great week so far! This week, I came across some recent research findings done by the UCL Institute of Education into adolescent mental health and in particular how the pandemic influenced mental health in students at KS3. Objectives: To understand the impact of the pandemic on adolescent mental health Summary:

• The research found that increased depressive symptoms and decreased life satisfaction took place for many young people during the pandemic, particularly for girls.
• It found that the increase will have led to approximately 60,000 more secondary-aged students reaching the threshold for clinical support for mental health.
• The researchers estimate that there would be 6% fewer adolescents with depressive mental health
• They conclude that this continues the urgent need to prioritise the already strained systems in place to support adolescent mental health and wellbeing

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• How do I support my tutees’ and students’ mental health?
• What services or interventions of support am I aware of to guide students to?
• What further training would be helpful to ensure I can support my students as best as possible?

If you would like to discuss this further with me please get in touch! I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Tips For School Staff: Supporting Students' Mental Health And Wellbeing

By Ella Higgs (Education Mental Health Practitioner from the West London Mental Health Support Team at HFEH Mind)

I have worked for three years as an Education Mental Health Practitioner at Mind, but before that, I was a 1:1 special needs assistant in a school. When I worked in the school, I remember wishing there was more training, advice and attention given to how I could support the mental health of the young people I worked with. Looking back now, with the training and experiences I have had, there is so much I wish I knew and there are things I definitely would have done differently. As school staff, you might be the only adult in some students lives who notices how they are feeling. Whilst this can of course feel like a daunting responsibility, it is also the most wonderful opportunity to make a difference. What I hope to do in this blog post is to provide some practical tips for supporting young people, and to empower you to feel confident using them. This sits alongside the variety of experience and diversity of backgrounds you have as a staff team and of course the natural skill and human instinct you all have when supporting young people.

When I discuss mental health in this post, I am defining it as a state of wellbeing that we all have and I invite you to consider your interactions with all young people, not just those who might have a diagnosed mental health condition.

What to look out for:

• The first thing to say here is that a need for support can present itself differently in everyone. One of the key things I want to discuss, which I feel is often misunderstood, is how ‘challenging behaviour’ is almost always an expression of an unmet need or a way of seeking safety. Picture a child who struggles to focus in class, one who appears defensive, rude and talks back when told off, and one who is always acting the class clown to get attention. Each of these behaviours have something in common, they can be part of a ‘survival response’. But what next? If a child is breaking rules and disrupting class, there have to be consequences? How do we support their mental health at the same time? – see the second tip below.
• As well as challenging behaviour, which we would call externalising, some young people turn more inward when they are struggling with their mental health, known as internalising. Signs of this may include withdrawing, avoiding, tearfulness, irritability. Sometimes young people may not have the language to tell you how they are feeling and might say, “I’m fine, I’m just tired”. I encourage you to trust your instincts if you suspect there is more to it – no harm can come from offering a conversation or letting someone know you are looking out for them.

Top tips, techniques and strategies

1. Emotion regulation

• When in distress, or ‘survival mode’, the brain is adapted to focus on keeping safe and deprioritises other functions such as being able to think and plan rationally. We can all relate to having the feeling of not being able to think clearly when we are super stressed, anxious or angry and perhaps doing or saying something we later regret.
  
• An important first step before we try to reason with young people or discuss their feelings, is to help then ‘turn down the heat’ on their emotions. This involves taking the time to help them relax a little. You could spend some time discussing their interests or something in their comfort zone, or you could guide them to use a calming technique such as deep breathing or grounding. See the resources and signposting section below for some ideas.
• Dr Bruce Perry, a neuroscientist, has shown us that to help a child to learn, think and reflect, we need to intervene in a simple sequence known as “The Three R’s”: Regulate, Relate, Reason. See the resources section below for more information on this approach.

2. Separate the behaviour from the young person

• If we know challenging behaviour is an indicator of something deeper, try this simple but highly effective strategy: separate the behaviour from the young person. This allows you to hold all boundaries and stick to school policies, but crucially also allows you to support the young person to feel seen, heard and safe.
• This might look like: “Your behaviour was not acceptable today and there will have to be a consequence, but I really want to hear about how you are feeling and what happened for you.” – then you can follow with some of the tips about having a conversation below.
• This communicates to the young person: you are not your behaviour. You can make a mistake and I still like you and ‘see’ you as a person.
• We are not providing permission for negative behaviour; we are acknowledging the underlying cause. We can hold the key assumption that all behaviours make sense – they always indicate an unmet need or are a way of seeking safety. This allows us more curiosity and empathy to explore what this might be for each individual young person

3. Having a conversation

• When young people are really distressed, sometimes the uncomfortableness of this can drive us - the adult - to want to fix, change or offer solutions. Whilst this can be very useful, there are other times where the most helpful thing is simply to listen and validate – “oh yes, that really is hard isn’t it”, “I understand why you feel so [angry, upset, scared] about that”. This communicates to the young person that you are a safe ‘container’ for their emotions, you are not overwhelmed by them, you accept them. Over time, this kind of validation and safe holding of overwhelming feelings will allow the young person to do the same for themselves – building their tolerance for uncomfortable emotions. Sometimes you are doing more by ‘doing’ less.
• As well as validating and showing empathy, some young people may not have language for their experience, especially if emotions are avoided or not spoken about. We can support young people to give language to their experience by modelling language about emotions and making suggestions – but being sure to allow them to accept or reject them. E.g., “I think I would feel pretty anxious if that happened to me, is that how you’re feeling?”
• Phrases to avoid: “Don’t worry about that”, “You’re okay”, “everything will be fine” – these are phrases we commonly use to try to comfort others and sometimes they can be comforting. However, more often than not, what they actually communicate is “I’m not hearing or acknowledging how this actually feels for you”, this can lead people to feel confused and alone with their feelings: “my body is telling me this is terrifying, yet this person is telling me everything is fine”.

4.Looking after yourself

• Supporting distressed young people can be mentally exhausting and this can make it difficult to be nurturing and attuned all the time. The key here is to be kind to yourself and make sure you are listening to your own needs just as much as you are to those you support.
• Think of it like the instructions for using oxygen masks on an aeroplane – you must put your own mask on before helping others. Understanding and managing your own emotional responses is not selfish, it is quite the opposite. When your own mental health is cared for, you will be far more resourced to be there for others. You can also provide a good role model for what it looks like to understand and respond to your emotions in a healthy way.
• Just as I am inviting you to validate the feelings of the young people, I am inviting you to validate your own feelings too – it is ok if you sometimes feel angry/frustrated, hopeless/helpless, sad, worried, ineffective, guilty, ashamed, to name a few common and understandable reactions to supporting distressed young people.
• It is important to stay aware of your own feelings and triggers It is always good to have some ‘go to’ strategies or activities to use to support your emotional wellbeing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I really hope it can be useful to you. I want to leave you with a little take-home message – never underestimate the power of showing an interest in the young people you work with and taking time to build your relationship with them. This can be as simple as remembering (or writing down to remember!) something they talked about the last time you spoke and asking them about it. Warm, consistent and respectful relationships are the foundation for any kind of mental health/wellbeing support.

Resources/References: Beacon House: https://beaconhouse.org.uk/?section=welcome-to-beacon-house ARC Framework: https://arcframework.org/what-is-arc/

Signposting and further support:

If you are concerned about your or your student’s mental health, please speak to your GP or invite their parent to.

 

For Yourself:

• IAPT Services through NHS choices: https://www.england.nhs.uk/mental-health/adults/iapt/​  
• To find a private therapist: ​ 
• BACP: http://www.bacp.co.uk/​  
• UKCP: https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/find-a-therapist/  
• Mind Info Line: provides an information and signposting service. Open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays) 0300 123 3393. Ask about:  mental health problems, where to get help near you, treatment options, advocacy services  
• Samaritans: Free phoneline: 116 123, alternatively you can email at jo@samaritans.org  
• YoungMinds Parent Line: detailed advice, emotional support and signposting about a child or young person up to the age of 25. Call for free on 0808 802 5544 from 9:30am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. https://youngminds.org.uk  
• Anxiety UK Infoline: Helpline 03444 775 774 is available from 9.30am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday, or you can email support@anxietyuk.org.uk  
• Helplines Partnership: For more options, visit the Helplines Partnership website for a directory of UK helplines https://helplines.org/helplines/ 
• Hub of Hope:​ The Hub of Hope is the UK’s leading mental health support database. It is provided by national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma, and brings local, national, peer, community, charity, private and NHS mental health support and services together in one place for the first time.
• Mental Health Support Team (MHST) telephone drop-in service for staff - to support their own wellbeing. We are providing drop-in telephone sessions to support staff with their own mental health and wellbeing. This is a confidential space away from the school where staff can get a listening ear, wellbeing guidance, signposting support, and resources. Each phone call lasts for up to 20 minutes and you can request up to 6 calls – please note this is not a counselling service. To sign-up, use the following link: https://hfehmind.jotform.com/21052318690295

 

For Your Students:

 

• Anxiety UK Infoline: Helpline is available from 9.30am – 5.30pm Monday to Friday, 03444 775 774 or you can email support@anxietyuk.org.uk
• BEAT: eating disorder charity. Information on types of eating disorders, recovery information, support information including helplines & downloadable resources. www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk Helpline: 0808 801 0677, Studentline: 0808 801 0811, Youthline: 0808 801 0711  
• CAMHS: is the name for the NHS services that assess and treat young people with emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties. Most local CAMHS teams have a website where you can look up how to get access to their service.  
• Hope Again: support for children and young people experiencing grief and bereavement. Helpline. www.hopeagain.org.uk, 0808 808 1677 
• Kooth: free online counselling support for under 25s. www.kooth.com or download the Kooth app  
• Mind: A-Z information for mental health, including treatment options, self-care, information for family & friends, & useful contacts www.mind.org.uk 
• The Mix: information & support about mental health for under 25s. Professional and young person blogs and advice over a wide range of topics. Helpline, crisis messenger, 121 chat, email. www.themix.org.uk, 0808 808 4994  
• NSPCC: charity fighting to end child abuse. Information, resources and further support, stories. www.nspcc.org.uk, 0808 800 5000  
• No Panic: offers advice, support, recovery programs and help for people living with phobias, OCD and any other anxiety-based disorders. https://nopanic.org.uk, 0844 967 4848   
• Papyrus: charity to prevent and help young people thinking about suicide. Information & support, hopeline for under 35s. www.papyrus-uk.org/hopelineuk, 0800 068 4141  
• Samaritans: 24/7, free helpline for anyone. 116 123, www.samaritans.org.uk  
• YoungMinds: mental health charity for children and young people. Information and resources for young people & parents, including parents’ helpline and young people crisis messenger and helpline. https://youngminds.org.uk, Text the YoungMinds Crisis Messenger for free 24/7 support across the UK if you are experiencing a mental health crisis. If you need urgent help text YM to 85258.  

Bitesize Research: The Impact Of School On Adolescent Mental Health

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone’s had a great week so far! This week, I was really interested in a study that was conducted by UCL into teenage mental health, which looked at the possible impact that school itself plays on poor mental health (particularly in girls) during adolescence. It used a large amount of anonymised longitudinal data taken from mental health clinics, GPs and CAMHS Objectives: To examine data from students in secondary schools to look at some of possible causes of poor mental health in adolescence. Summary:

• The findings show that mental health issues are rare in primary-aged students, but then they increase rapidly in secondary school, wherein they become twice as common for girls compared with boys.
• For boys, the data suggests that only towards YR11 do mental health issues increase, whereas for girls it appears that this occurs from YR8 onwards.
• The authors suggest that this may be due to biological or hormonal changes in girls, as well as boys being less likely to disclose or seek help for mental health issues.
• Whilst recent educational policy has suggested that secondary schooling or specific year group dynamics play a part in this decline in mental health, this study raises some important questions about this
• The study contends that age rather than year group appears to be a stronger determinant of mental health issues. By comparing summer-born students and autumn-born students in consecutive years (who are therefore very close in age but in different year groups) they noticed that it was age rather than year group that influenced mental health decline more than say ‘being in YR11’.

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• What is my awareness of mental health in our students? What are some of the signs of declining mental health?
• How does this study shape your thinking related to students you teach, or students in your tutor group?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.

Bitesize Research: How Types of Anxiety Affect Student Well-being And Performance

By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone has had a great week so far! For this week’s bitesize research, I was interested in looking at a study from the Journal of Youth and Adolescence in March 2021 that looks at different types of student anxiety, and the relationship these have to psychological wellbeing and academic performance. This was a study that took place in China, and looked at 715 students. Objectives: To understand how five different anxiety symptoms (including generalised anxiety, separation anxiety, social anxiety, school anxiety, and panic disorder) develop in young people and how these impact psychological wellbeing and academic performance in young people. Summary: The key findings were:

• Students with generalised and social anxiety reported the lowest level of psychological well-being. Their life satisfaction and self-esteem levels were the lowest, while they displayed the highest levels of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation.
• Students in the group with predominant social anxiety showed the highest academic achievement.
• The group with school anxiety and congruent high anxiety displayed the lowest academic achievement.

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• What different types of support might students with different anxiety symptoms need?
• What sorts of strategies have I tried with students showing different anxiety symptoms? How effective have they been? How can I continue to refine them?

If you would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.

Bitesize Research: Does Technology Affect Adolescent Mental Health

 By Jaya Carrier

I hope everyone is well. With Enrichment Day this term focusing on supporting students to become excellent internet citizens, I was interested in a new piece of research from the University of Oxford on looking at connections between the use of technology and adolescent mental health. Objectives: To understand what impact the use of technology and the internet has on adolescent mental health Summary: The key overall themes are:

• Despite some anecdotal and populist evidence, the research evidence base suggesting a negative impact on the use of technology on teenage mental health is actually very thin - this study contends that there is no conclusive evidence between technology use and poor adolescent mental health
• It does not appear that over time the relationship between use of technology and poor teenage mental health has worsened either
• There is a small rise in social media use and emotional problems

How does this impact me and my practice?:

Some reflection questions arising from this that might be helpful to consider are:

• Interestingly, a study from the Prince’s Trust and the Education Policy Institute in January 2021 came to very different conclusions. What do we think about this?
• How can we equip our students to interact more positively with social media if there is a correlation with emotional problems?

If anyone would like to discuss this further with me - please let me know! I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.