Mental health is a term which refers to our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Our Mental Health affects how we think, feel, and act and is an indicator of how we handle stress, our relationships with people and sometimes even the choices we make.

Wellbeing has been defined as the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy as well as our sense of purpose and how in control we feel.

It is now a well recognised fact that our Mental Health is as important as our physical health and that schools have a central role to play in enabling their pupils to be resilient and to support good mental health and wellbeing.

Teaching about Mental Health and Wellbeing is a core part of schools’ statutory curriculum delivery as well as protecting the wellbeing and mental health of staff. Both are now taken into account as part of Ofsted inspections.

In developing a whole school approach to mental wellbeing, we should seek to ask how inclusive and culturally sensitive are the school’s mental health processes and services in being appropriate and acceptable to all children and young people including from diverse families and from the LGBTQIA+ community.