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'The international health community is concerned about the mental health status of our young…. It is a time bomb that is ticking and, without the right action now, millions of our children growing up will feel the effects.’ Dr Hans Troedsson, former WHO director for Child and Adolescent Health
Wellbeing, and particularly emotional wellbeing, needs to be a feature of the work of all schools. Twenty-first century childhood is pressurised and many children are mentally fragile and emotionally ill-equipped. Schools have a duty to respond, through a high quality curriculum, to ensure the child is emotionally resilient and prepared for the challenges of life in our high speed societies.
A useful definition of emotional wellbeing is offered by the Mental Health Foundation: ‘A positive sense of wellbeing which enables an individual to be able to function in society and meet the demands of everyday life; people in good mental health have the ability to recover effectively from illness, change or misfortune.’
Childhood carries many risk factors which may have a negative impact on a child’s emotional wellbeing, such as poor housing, economic disadvantage, serious illness, abuse or bereavement. Any of these factors can have a profound impact on a child’s self-esteem and their ability to learn. As many as one in five children in our classrooms may be experiencing a psychological problem at any one time.
How do we make our children emotionally strong? Preventative approaches are much better than intervention after a problem has emerged. Thus a focus on ‘emotional resilience’ in schools will be helpful. Opportunities for children to deal with the social world through skills like participating, handling conflict, mutual responsibility and relationships will enhance a child’s capacity for the management of life.
This will require schools to offer a curriculum that has clearly articulated strands of emotional and social development. The creation of a positive environment with effective pastoral care systems is seen by many commentators, as the context for this work. But how does this roll out in practice? What is the everyday reality for schools, and for their children?
In my presentation to the Beijing conference, ‘From student to citizen: transforming students through emotional resilience’, I will explore some of these questions and the concept of vulnerability, and propose a continuum of need which spans childhood through to that most traumatic of life phases, adolescence.
Professor Barry Carpenter SunfieldSchool Worcestershire, UK