Sharing Student Projects

The number of children and adolescents in the UK reporting that they are experiencing poor mental health and emotional wellbeing (MHEWB) is increasing. Teachers can play a valuable role in supporting students as they see them regularly and are able to notice changes in their mood or appearance. They are often the first point of call for a concerned parent or a young person in distress. Their support is especially important during a child's time at secondary school, when they undergo substantial physical and social change. It is also around this time that symptoms of long-term mental health conditions may first appear. However, the findings of previous research undertaken with secondary school teachers have demonstrated that they have different understandings of what their role in supporting students’ MHEWB should be. These studies have also found also lack training, as it is not a compulsory component of initial teacher training programmes in the UK. This study aimed to understand how secondary school teachers in the UK perceive the role they play in supporting students’ MHEWB and their beliefs in their ability to carry out this task, what shaped these beliefs and how teachers would like to be supported. The target population was teachers who worked at secondary schools in the UK. Teachers who were responsible for leading on mental health at a whole school level, such as senior mental health leads, were not eligible to participate. Six teachers working in a range of different school contexts (e.g., state-funded, independent) were interviewed for the study. After participants gave informed consent, they were invited to take part in online interviews via Zoom. The interviews were recorded and coded to identify common themes across participants’ responses. In total, four themes were identified: expectations of teachers; teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, training versus experience and teachers’ wants and needs. Participants believed that they should support students’ MHEWB but the responsibility they believed they should and could take for this was shaped by the resources available in their schools. Participants who worked in better-resourced schools felt that their role was to identify students’ concerns and refer these on, whereas those teaching in schools with fewer resources already found it challenging to balance their academic and pastoral responsibilities. Participants lacked confidence in their ability to support students’ mental health; their responses suggested this could be due to a lack of training and teacher stress. To increase their confidence to support students’ MHEWB, some participants wanted to receive more training, particularly around supporting students from minority groups, such as those identifying as LGBTQ+. Some wanted to receive more structured support, such as counselling, for their own MHEWB. Research into secondary school teachers’ experiences of supporting students’ MHEWB is a growing area. By understanding the factors that increase and detract from teachers’ confidence in carrying out this work, this study highlights how teachers can be better supported to fulfil this aspect of their role. Future research can continue to develop understanding of how teachers can be better enabled to support students’ MHEWB. Collaborative research with students from minority groups could also build understanding of how they would like to be supported by teachers.

This research has the potential to benefit government policy as it provides insight into the challenges schools and teachers in the UK face in supporting students’ MHEWB. The findings suggest that some schools need additional funding for more staff and additional services to support students. The study also supports the findings of previous research which has demonstrated that there is inconsistency in the way in which MHEWB is addressed by different teacher training providers, leaving some teachers’ feeling that they lack the knowledge to support students effectively. Hence, making MHEWB a mandatory component of initial teacher training programmes could increase teachers’ beliefs in their ability to recognise signs of poor MHEWB in students. Within schools, school leaders can coordinate whole school approaches to MHEWB to ensure that staff and students’ wellbeing is prioritised. By clearly defining the responsibilities they expect teachers to take on to support students’ MHEWB, school leaders may prevent teachers from taking on more responsibility than is realistic. Teachers should also be given adequate time and space to be able to build positive relationships with students, which may encourage students to be more forthcoming with their concerns. School leaders should also consult staff to understand which professional development opportunities around MHEWB will be helpful, relevant to the school’s context and realistically manageable, given the existing demands on teachers’ time.