The important role of senior leaders in mentally healthy schools

Margot Sunderland offers some guidance to help support students and teachers

Heads and senior leaders keen to ensure their school is a mentally healthy environment really do have their work cut out. Research on international school wellbeing conducted by Cardiff University School of Psychology and International Educational Psychology Services (Wigford and Higgins, 2019), flagged that supportive relationships, healthy communication, effective support systems and clear, strong leadership are the most important factors for positive staff and student wellbeing in international schools. For headteachers, such a responsibility may appear a Herculean task, especially as senior leaders’ own emotional requirements also need to be met.

Many senior leaders are overwhelmed by heavy workloads and the need to constantly improve attainment, making it difficult for them to provide mental health support for teachers and students – a point they must inevitably address. So what can be done? Here are our top six tips:

Senior leaders need to prioritise their own psychological support

Counselling brings down toxic stress (which is dangerous to the immune system and a key factor triggering mental ill-health) to tolerable stress – heads should attend twice weekly therapy sessions where they can off-load, weep, howl, rage in front of someone who truly understands.

‘Psychological hazards’ health checks for teachers and a shift to psychologically aware, warm and empathic whole-school cultures

This involves putting in place a system of valuing teachers and removing the psychological hazards of shame and blame. Research shows that feeling valued is key to mental health, whereas shame triggers the same reaction in the body as physical injury (Dickerson et al, 2014). To this end, one head adopted the ‘I wish my headteacher knew’ intervention. It’s a simple written note exercise for teachers (which can be anonymised) – a derivation of the intervention ‘I wish my teacher knew’ used by teachers keen to really understand the issues that students were facing. Unsurprisingly the teachers wrote back: ‘We don’t feel valued’. This was a wake-up call for the head and senior leaders who then began to focus on making time to acknowledge and appreciate members of staff. This head also started and ended the week with several small talking circles for staff at which they could express their feelings about school and home (led by a teacher trained in group facilitation).

A shift from a culture of blame regarding test results to a culture of support for teacher-student relational health will also have a positive impact on students’ mental health. Research shows that the more securely attached children are to teachers, the better their behaviour and the higher their grades (Bergin and Bergin, 2009).

Bringing down toxic stress to tolerable stress for teachers

Heads have a responsibility to find ways of bringing down teachers’ toxic stress to tolerable stress levels. A quick ‘therethere’ chat in the corridor before the teacher’s next lesson is not sufficient to reduce toxic stress levels. Rather, it’s important to ensure that staff have access to an oxytocin (anti-stress neurochemical) releasing environment on a daily basis e.g. a work-free sensory staff-only zone with time to use it built into the school timetable. It needs to include some of the following elements which we know from neuroscience triggers oxytocin and opioids:

Warm lights (uplighters)

Colour

Soothing music

Lovely smells

Comforting fabric

External warmth heating the body (e.g. electric blankets)

Open fire DVD (Uvnas-Moberg, 2011)

Bringing down toxic stress to tolerable stress for students

Many children arrive at school in an emotional state not conducive to learning – this could be due to troubled home

lives or other external factors. There are many neuroscience research-backed interventions designed to bring down stress levels in vulnerable children from toxic to tolerable. These are best implemented at the beginning of the school day and include:

Accompanied drumming Tai chi

Mindfulness

Replacing detention room with meditation room (research shows improved learning and less bad behaviour)

Sensory play Time with animals or time outside

All of these interventions support learning and protect against toxic stress-induced physical and mental illness.

Train key members of staff to become ‘emotionallyavailable adults’ for vulnerable children

There is a wealth of evidence-based research showing that having daily and easy access to at least one specific emotionally-available adult, and knowing when and where to find that adult, is a key factor in preventing mental illhealth in children and young people – it’s called social buffering. If the child does not take to the designated adult, an alternative person should be found.

Create a policy around testing and exam stress

Heads need to ensure students understand that their selfworth and the worth of others cannot be measured simply by tests and exams. This needs to be communicated very clearly to ensure that they have got the message, coupled with a formal valuing of each individual child in terms of their special qualities: eg kindness, generosity, perseverance, explorative drive.

Conclusion

Responsibility for mental health in schools should not simply rest on the shoulders of headteachers. What is required is international recognition of the importance of monitoring the mental health culture of every school –a governing bodies, trust boards and directors need to make staff wellbeing, as well as student wellbeing, key performance indicators for our schools.

References

Bergin C & Bergin D (2009) Attachment in the Classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 21, 141-170. Dickerson S, Grunewald T & Kemeny M (2004) When the Social Self Is Threatened: Shame, Physiology, and Health, Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1191-1216 Uvnas-Moberg, K (2011) The Oxytocin Factor, London: Pinter and Martin Ltd Wigford A & Higgins A (2019) Wellbeing in International Schools, Available via www.iscresearch.com/resources/wellbeing-ininternational-schools

Dr Margot Sunderland is Director of the Centre for Child Mental Health (www.childmentalhealthcentre. org), a non-profit organisation that provides mental health training in schools, and CoDirector of Trauma Informed Schools UK (www.traumainformedschools.org).