•Encourage openness.
•Distance the learning.
•Keep the conversation in the room.
•Maintain a non-judgemental approach.
•Ensure the right to pass.
•Make no assumptions.
•Listen to others.
•Use language carefully.
•Ask questions.
•Encourage seeking help and advice.
Encourage openness
An important part of breaking down the stigma that surrounds mental health issues is to encourage an ethos of openness but within specific boundaries. These should be governed by your school’s safeguarding policy. Mental health should not be a taboo topic and it should be openly and honestly discussed within the classroom setting, which should feel like a safe and supportive environment for discussions on mental health that are positive and affirming whilst giving students the opportunity to share their concerns. However, it needs to be agreed with students that lesson time is not the appropriate setting to directly discuss their own personal or private lives or that of others.
General situations can be used as examples but names and identifying descriptions should be omitted.
Distance the learning
Students should be actively discouraged from drawing on personal examples. Care should also be taken to discuss activities using the third person where possible in order to protect vulnerable individuals. Useful distancing techniques you might employ include the use of puppets, case studies or role plays with invented characters. These can be a good way to depersonalize learning so long as you take care to ensure that none of the characters in any way resembles any of your students.
Keep the conversation in the room
Students need to feel safe discussing general issues related to mental health within the lesson without fear that these discussions will be repeated by teachers or students beyond this setting. Students should feel confident exploring their misconceptions or questions about mental health within this safe setting. It is important, however, to make it clear that if you become concerned that a child may be at risk then you will need to follow the school’s safeguarding policy.
Maintain a non-judgemental approach
When we tackle issues surrounding self-harm and eating disorders, we often find that students have a lot of prior beliefs, misunderstandings and inappropriate attitudes towards the topics concerned. It’s important that these can be explored within the classroom environment without fear of being judged or ridiculed. Discuss with students the idea that it is okay, and often healthy, to disagree with another person’s point of view but it is never okay to judge, make fun of or put down other students. Where students disagree with another’s point of view, they should challenge the belief and not the person.
Ensure the right to pass
Whilst participation in the lesson is important, every student has the right to choose not to answer a question, or not to participate in an activity. Students may choose to pass on participation if a topic touches upon personal issues which they should not disclose within a classroom setting, or if the topic of the activity or discussion makes them feel uncomfortable in any way. They could be invited to discuss such concerns with the teacher individually. Teachers can prepare the class by letting them know the nature of the topic beforehand and offering students the opportunity to let the teacher know either anonymously or directly if they have any concerns about themselves or a friend. This will enable you to ensure that your teaching is as inclusive as possible and is matched to the students’ needs.
If you are aware of students in your class who are likely to find the topic of the lesson particularly sensitive, perhaps due to their own pre-existing mental health condition, or that of a family member, then the lesson content could be discussed with them beforehand. It may be appropriate to give the student the right to withdraw from the lesson. They should not be expected to justify their absence to their peers. If the lesson is missed, then consideration should be taken as to how to follow up the missed lesson with the student in question so that they are able to benefit from the learning without being made to feel uncomfortable in front of their peers.
Make no assumptions
In addition to not judging the viewpoints of others, students must also take care not to make assumptions about the values, attitudes, life experiences, faith values, cultural values or feelings of their peers.
Listen to others
Every student in the class has the right to feel listened to and they should respect the right of their peers to feel listened to as well. You might choose to revisit what active listening to others means. It is okay to challenge the viewpoint of another student, but we should always listen to their point of view, in full, before making assumptions or formulating a response.
Use language carefully
Students should be reminded to take care in their use of language within (and beyond) lessons about mental health. They should not be using language that is inaccurate or offensive. There are many words surrounding mental health which have negative connotations or may be misunderstood by students. It can be valuable to explore these words and understand exactly why they are inappropriate and should not be used either within the setting of a lesson, or within day-to-day life. You might, for example, consider with students how they would feel if such words were applied to them. Such words include ‘nutter’ and ‘loony bin’ or the use of ‘mental’ or ‘crazy’ in a derogatory fashion.
Ask questions
It is important to foster an open environment where students feel safe asking questions and exploring their preconceptions about a topic. Students should understand that no question will be considered stupid and, when they are in doubt about an issue or topic, they should ask. It’s also important that students realize it is never appropriate to ask a question in order to deliberately try to embarrass somebody else or to encourage students to laugh at someone.
Making an anonymous question box available to students can be an effective way of enabling students to ask questions they may feel uncomfortable posing in a classroom setting. You can make this available prior to, during or after the lesson. You will need to allow yourself time to go through and filter the questions. Inviting questions prior to the lesson can be a good way to help you direct the lesson as it progresses based on the current needs and understanding of your class and can also give a good indicator of where there are safeguarding issues or pastoral issues that are in need of follow up.
Encourage seeking help and advice
Whilst it’s important that students do not make personal disclosures during the course of the lesson, the appropriate means for seeking support and advice needs to be clearly signposted in the lesson. This will mean being familiar with, and sharing appropriate parts of, the school’s safeguarding policies, or other relevant policies. You should also share details of relevant websites and helplines where students can seek confidential advice and support. Students should be encouraged to support their friends in seeking help where they think it is needed. Whilst clarifying that during a lesson is not the appropriate moment to seek support, ensure students understand the importance of sharing their worries with a trusted adult if they have any concerns over their own mental health or emotional wellbeing, or that of another student. This is the quickest and best way to ensure that support is received when it is needed. Students should be reassured that they will always be taken seriously, will never be judged and will always be listened to if they choose to make a disclosure at school.
As lessons on mental health may result in students having questions they need to explore with you outside the class setting, where possible it’s helpful to remain available to students immediately after class, or signpost a time when you might be available for further discussion.
TEACHING CHECKLIST
1. Familiarize yourself with school policies
Before