Let's Talk about Anxiety is an animation and accompanying teacher toolkit from Schools in Mind.

Aimed at students aged 11 to 13, the resource will help young people to normalise, understand and manage anxious feelings.

As well as the animation, which was co-created with young people, the resources include:

• materials for delivering a lesson, including a PowerPoint, lesson plan and worksheets
• materials for delivering an assembly, including a PowerPoint and assembly plan
• guidance materials for teachers, PSHE co-ordinators and parents/carers.

To download the resources click here

April is Stress Awareness Month, so Education Support have put together some new resources.

Don't forget. Their free and confidential helpline, is there to support you and your staff every day of the year. You're never on your own.

Tel: 08000 562 561.

1. Stress Risk Assessments

A stress risk assessment can help to reduce the risk of stress to yourself and your colleagues, promote good mental health, and create a happy and healthy school environment.

To find out more and how to approach doing a stress risk assessment in your school click here.

2. Dealing with the Stress of Behaviour Management

Through his vast teaching experience, Athir Hassan, also known as The Behaviour Trainer, has developed various techniques to manage the stresses and anxieties related to managing student behaviour.  To find out more click here.

3. Stress Busting Tips

A fantastic panel of teachers and mental health experts share some excellent tips to help you gain control on your stress-levels.  Watch here.

4. Boost staff wellbeing with an Employee Assistance Programme

Hear from Mark and Sophie, who work with schools across the country, about the tangible benefits of Education Supports Employee Assistance Programme could bring your school. Watch here.

Racism can present itself in different ways in a young child’s life. A child may have direct or indirect experiences of racism, but the impact can be felt all the same. Our new early years resource has been written by Dr Pamela Hamilton and Dr Bisi Showunmi, two Child Psychologists. Both have delivered anti-racism sessions for schools and local authorities, with the second author writing her thesis on race and identity development in school children.

This booklet introduces the idea of racial socialisation and how it supports child development. It identifies some ways to facilitate your journey in supporting racial socialisation in an early years setting.

View and download the resource here .

This webinar was held in February and was recorded and will be available to watch back on the Anna Freud Centre YouTube channel in a few weeks. You can subscribe for new content notifications.

Useful links from the session

• Value, Money and Me - online books, games and resources for families to learn about money: Click Here.
• Love Food Hate Waste - put the name of the food that you need to use up, and it will give you a list of recipes to use that food:Click Here.
• For low-cost recipes: Click Here
• Join the National Centre for Family Learning for Free: Click Here.
• Money Helper high-quality support and advice: Click Here.

FREE mental health and resilience training for schools

Mindapples has been promoting public mental health and wellbeing across the UK since 2008. Over the years they’ve received lots of similar feedback from adults “if only I was taught this at school”. The vision at Mindapples is of a world where taking care of our minds is natural and normal for everyone – and this should start with children and young people.  Since mental wellbeing and resilience became a statutory part of the curriculum, Mindapples want to help schools deliver on this promise to young people. Working with schools across the UK, they have developed a package of training and classroom resources to support teachers in delivering the new curriculum and developing an approach to mental wellbeing that can benefit the whole school community of staff, pupils and parents.  The training equips school staff with the awareness and understanding they need to take care of their own minds, and the tools to help them facilitate positive conversations about mental health and wellbeing with pupils, school communities and families, to build cultures which promote healthy habits and open conversations.

“It was a really well run, well-delivered, well-resourced and useful course which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I will be delivering training on this to our whole student body and I only hope I deliver it half as well as you did and inspire our staff to make a difference as you have me!"
Judith Firth Assistant Head Mayfield School Portsmouth

Mindapples recently took part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge and reached their fundraising target so can now provide their schools programme to more schools in the UK for FREE. They are now looking for schools to receive our training so if you would like more information on the programme, course dates and registration please visit here. If you have any questions please email Michele Worden at schools@mindapples.org.

Young Minds know how important it is for young people to have mental health advice that takes into account their faith, and cultural background. For young Muslims in particular, finding tailored support can be challenging.  For a young person who’s struggling, it can feel very difficult to talk about what you’re going through and reach out for support especially if you’re worried that the people around you won’t understand. But Young Minds want young people to know that they don’t have to struggle alone, and that they deserve to feel proud of who they are. Whoever they are. That’s why Young Minds have teamed up with Muslim Youth Helpline, and worked directly with young Muslims from across the UK, to create a range of faith friendly information and mental health advice.

Download Young Minds Faith Friendly resources here .

Younger generations now grow up entwined in the digital world, always just a few clicks away from the online galaxy of gaming and gambling. This training will:

• Increase awareness of advertising and sponsorship along with an understanding of in game purchases (microtransactions), social media and the blurred lines between the online / offline world
• Equip you with the knowledge and confidence to spot the signs of harm, start informed safeguarding conversations and signpost to support when needed.
• Enable free access to award winning complimentary, downloadable, and cross-curricular resources. These include lesson plans, schemes of work, PowerPoints, tutorials (all aligned to the PSHE curriculum from KS2-5), and over 100 youth activities as well as awareness sessions on topics such as age-appropriate content. You can view sample resources here

Register below for one of four FREE online workshops: Sessions are suitable for safeguarding staff, teachers, wellbeing staff, heads, support staff, youth workers and any staff member who may have direct contact or deliver to children and young people.

• Wednesday 15 March, 3:45pm–5:45pm: To Book Click Here
• Thursday 16 March, 4pm-6pm:  To Book Click Here
• Tuesday 28th March, 3:45pm – 5:45pm: To Book Click Here
• Wednesday 26th April, 3:45pm – 5:45pm: To Book Click Here

YGAM can also run private sessions (online or face to face) for your school should you have a date that suits better (minimum 12 delegates). These are also fully funded as part of our national programme, so free of charge.

Brook offers sexual health and wellbeing services across Barnet to young people and professionals.

We offer the following services:

• Relationships and sex education in schools and community settings
• One-to-one early intervention programmes with young people
• Health promotion stalls and events
• Peer education programmes
• Trainings for professionals
• C card training and drop-ins

Please contact barnet.education@brook.org.uk to make an enquiry.

Universal help-seeking interventions in schools to support young people’s mental health have been widely used, but we know little about their initial impact and longer term follow-up. A new systematic literature review, carried out by researchers at the Evidence Based Practice Unit and collaborators, aims explore the impact of these types of programmes across different help-seeking constructs. While the researchers found some evidence of impact in relation to interpersonal attitudes towards help seeking for up to six months post-intervention, on the whole findings around other constructs for help seeking were mixed. Read the open access paper in full.

Sara Tough, Executive Director for Children’s Services at Norfolk County Council and Chair of the Family, Communities and Young People’s Policy Committee for the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) kicks off this new blog series by local children’s services leaders, demonstrating the innovations and best practice taking place across the country to achieve sustainable change for children and young people’s mental health. Her blog highlights how new partnerships and a shared vision have made her optimistic that we can close the gap between children’s needs and the support available to them in Norfolk and beyond. Read the blog here.