Mentally Healthy Schools launches resources for secondary schools and FE colleges

Mentally Healthy Schools, the UK’s first hub offering free, quality assured mental health resources and guidance has expanded its offer to secondary schools and further education colleges.

Mentally Healthy Schools was launched in 2018 by our Royal Patron, Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, and was led by Heads Together charities Place2Be, the Anna Freud Centre and YoungMinds. 

Since its launch, this hub of resources has been accessed over 1 million times, offering primary school staff information, advice and practical resources to better understand and promote pupils’ mental health and wellbeing.

Now hosted by the Anna Freud Centre, it has expanded its offer to include resources and guidance for staff in secondary schools and further education colleges. Education staff can access hundreds of new resources and useful information to help them deliver mental health lessons to the students they support - including resources from Place2Be.

To coincide with the launch, the Anna Freud Centre has today published a new report which has found that 93% of over 3,000 young people surveyed in the UK want:

• Mental health to be brought into the classroom
• For conversations about mental health to be normalised in schools and further education colleges.

This report highlights the importance of trusted relationships in young people’s lives as they face the challenges of growing up, particularly amidst the pressures of the pandemic.

Jaime Smith, Director of the Schools Programme at the Anna Freud Centre, said:

“We need to support all school staff, parents and carers, governors, and students to work together to take a whole-school approach to mental health. This has never been more crucial than now, when it is essential that children and young people are able to turn to someone they can trust for support in times of distress – whether that includes their own friendship groups, school staff or the other trusted adults in their lives.”

Read more about the report, and access hundreds of free mental health resources for your school, on the Mentally Healthy Schools website.