How can well-being be promoted in primary education?

Many people consider wellbeing to focus on their health and happiness but wellbeing gives a holistic outlook on an individual which can be impacted by many factors, such as, the local community and education (CDS, 2008). This shows that wellbeing encompasses all aspects of the individual including their mental health. The World Health Organisation (2014) state that mental health is a state of well-being in which individuals realize their own abilities, enables them to cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and are able to make a contribution to their community. Mental health today is a big issue for young people since Young Minds (2016) found that one in ten children have a diagnosable mental health disorder which is around three children in every classroom. This is going to put major pressure on teachers and schools which could be a massive factor into why Health and Wellbeing is becoming integrated within the curriculum as an ‘Area of Learning and experience (Donaldson, 2015). 

Children need to experience all aspects of well-being in order to thrive and engage successfully in education which the school environment can support this process (Donaldson, 2015). This is very important within education today because everyone has mental health and in recent decades there has been an increasing realisation of the need to consider positive dimensions, for example, satisfaction and happiness both in general and in the school context (Diener, 2000; Duckworth, Quinn and Seligman, 2009). The government and educational professionals highlights the vital role schools have when identifying and meeting children’s needs with respect to emotional health and wellbeing and promoting it through school-based activities that have potential to make a significant long lasting positive impact on their wellbeing (Banjeree, 2016; Humphrey and Wigelsworth, 2012). It is important that schools identify children’s mental health problems since long-term consequences of poor mental health include, leaving school with no qualifications, future unemployment and family and relationship problems (Colman et al, 2009 cited in Humphrey and Wigelsworth, 2012; Farrington, Healey, & Knapp, 2004). Positive wellbeing in children and young people is shown to be associated with good academic outcomes which could be down to pupils being less likely to participate if children have ascribed signs of mental health. It has been shown schools who provide social and emotional learning programmes perform up to 17% better then non-intervention schools (National Association of Head Teachers, 2017; Stomark et al, 2008). Therefore, schools should ensure that they have programmes in place in order to support all their pupils on any aspect that could impact on their mental health. 

There are many strategies that the school can adopt in order to support their pupils, for example, school-based councillors and collaborative projects between health and education (BBC News, 2017). There are opportunities to form partnerships taking a multiagency approach to provide the best quality of care for any circumstance. However, a major challenge for pupils is identifying the best possible support for their pupil since the combination of internalising and externalising symptoms demonstrates the complexity of child mental health (Beyer et al, 2012). Although by integrating health and wellbeing into the curriculum we can try and prevent these symptoms and use the curriculum as a preventative method of care and according to Khukhlaeva (2014) we can identify which type of mental health disorder a child in primary school has by observing the child’s behaviour in the conflict and on its content.A study shows that many teachers are too reliant on curriculum resources when educating children about health and well-being (Williams and Lawson, 2013). Although this study was conducted in Australia where the education system provides many quality-based mental health programmes that are shown to be effective. Although ensuring that the quality of delivery is effective in all schools is not guaranteed since some teachers may not adapt the programmes to the learners’ needs (Slee, Dix and Williams, 2011). Therefore, we need to ensure we do not heavily rely on government programmes since each class of pupils have different well-being needs which may need prioritising, for example, obesity. Although using government publications to gain an understanding of the subject and as a guide may be more effective. 

Within one of our ‘Areas of Learning and Experience’ seminars we got the chance to reflect upon a good teaching strategy in order to improve children’s fitness through a P.E lesson. This was great because it was a fun way to exercise and improve our dance skills. However, the lesson was very much about one aspect of learning and could have include other aspects that promoted a cross-curricular approach. However, I do understand the challenge of this since the student carrying out this session only had one hour with us. Whereas in my placement I saw how the session could be carried out in a cross-curricular way following the new curriculum proposed in the Donaldson review. The school would have carried different projects, for example, the year 3 class I was in focused on Egyptians, therefore all subjects would link back to the same topic creating one big learning experience. This links to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory since he believes that children learn and retain knowledge through experiences, therefore the children may remember the dance, remembering how the Egyptians made Pyramids which is a lot more meaningful then learning a basic dance (Bergsteiner and Avery, 2014). Therefore, for their P.E lesson they would think about how the Egyptians would make Pyramids and therefore use this to create an expressive dance routine, for example, hauling the bricks. This included using digital skills to research the building process, their dance and motor skills carry out the routine, there creative and literacy skills to demonstrate and communicate ideas and finally it included learning about history. Making P.E lessons tie into the topic the class is studying allows the learning to come together and covers some of the main aims from Donaldson’s curriculum reform since they were ‘creative contributors’, ‘ambitious learners’ and ‘healthy, confident individuals’ since they presented their creations to the rest of the class (Donaldson, 2015). This is a great strategy to improve children’s physical wellbeing however, I feel there needs to be a lesson dedicated to focus on health and wellbeing in order to prevent mental health problems that external factors like social media has a huge impact upon. 

Evans and Rich (2011) highlight how many educators consider Physical education to be the main strategy to address wellbeing, however, young people are increasingly subjected to performative expectations in society through governments and media promoting visions of perfection, which individuals work on relentlessly. However, we need to change this and show children that not everything you see or read is true and there are different levels of achievement in different aspects of learning, for example, children are not expected to be perfect at everything they do and these pressures can impact children’s behaviour for example, become obsessed with fitness (Yang et al, 2017). Although I feel with the new curriculum proposed in the Donaldson review this is more achievable since they have combined health and wellbeing together into the curriculum which will incorporate a more holistic approach to children’s overall wellbeing. 

References

Banjeree, R. & McLaughlin, C. & Cotney, J. & Roberts, L. & Peereboom, C. (2016) PPIW Report Publication: Promoting Emotional Health, Well-being and Resilience in Primary Schools. Available at:http://ppiw.org.uk/files/2016/02/PPIW-Report-Promoting-Emotional-Health-Well-being-and-Resilience-in-Primary-Schools-Final.pdf(Accessed:21^stMarch 2018). 

BBC News (2017) £1.4m mental health project to help school pupils. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41361491(Accessed: 29^thMarch 2018).

Bergsteiner, H. & Avery, G. (2014) ‘The twin-cycle experiential learning model: reconceptualising Kolb’s theory’, Studies in Continuing Education, 36(3), pp.257-274.

Beyer, T. & Postert, C. & Muller, J. & Furniss, T. (2012) ‘Prognosis and Continuity of Child Mental Health Problems from Preschool to Primary School: Results of a Four-Year Longitudinal Study’, Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 43(4), pp.533-543.

Centre for Development Studies (2008) A framework for analysis in social and development policy and practice. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_White24/publication/241141227_But_What_is_Wellbeing_A_Framework_for_Analysis_in_Social_and_Development_Policy_and_Practice/links/550de2890cf212874167726d/But-What-is-Wellbeing-A-Framework-for-Analysis-in-Social-and-Development-Policy-and-Practice.pdf(Accessed: 27^thMarch). 

Diener, E. (2000) ‘Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index’, American Psychology Association, 55(1), pp.34-43. 

Donaldson, G. (2015) Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Available at: http://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-Futures-en.pdf(Accessed: 29^thMarch 2018).

Duckworth, A. & Quinn, P. & Seligman, M. (2009) ‘Positive predictors of teacher effectiveness’, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(6), pp.540-547. 

Evans, J. & Rich, E. (2011) ‘Body policies and body pedagogies: every child matters in totally pedagogised schools?’, Journal of Education policy, 26(3), pp.361-379.

Humphrey, N. & Wigelsworth, M. (2012) ‘Modelling the Factors Associated with Children's Mental Health Difficulties in Primary School: A Multilevel Study’, School Psychology Review, 41(3), pp.326-341. 

Khukhlaeve, O. (2014) ‘Classification of Mental Health disorders in preschool and primary school children’, Psilhologiceskaa Nauka I Obrazovanie, 5(5), pp.81-90. 

National Association of head teachers (2017) Pupil well-being. Available at: http://www.naht.org.uk/our-priorities/pupil-well-being/(Accessed: 29^thMarch 2018).

Slee, P. & Dix, K. & Williams, H. (2011) ‘Whole school mental health promotion in Australia’, The International Journal of Emotional Education, 3(2), pp.37-49. 

Stormark, M. & Helervang, E. & Heimann, M. & Lundervold, A. & Gillberg, C. (2008) ‘predicting nonresponse Bias from Teacher Ratings of Mental Health Problems in Primary School Children’, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36(3), pp.411-419. 

Williams, A. & Lawson, M. (2013) ‘Teachers’ Knowledge and Confidence for Promoting Positive Mental Health in Primary School Communities’, Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), pp. 126-143. 

World Health Organisation (2014) Mental health: a state of well-being. Available at: http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/mental_health/en/(Accessed: 27^thMarch 2018).

Yang, J. & Le, M. & Laurell, C. & Hellerstedt, K. (2017) The power of Social Media to Our Mind and Body: Study of social media’s effect on young female’s perception regarding fitness in Sweden. Master Thesis. Jonkopin University. 

Young Minds (2016) Young Minds Annual Report 2015-2016. Available at: https://youngminds.org.uk/media/1233/youngminds-annual-report-15-16-final.pdf(Accessed: 27^thMarch 2018).