Government announces extra mental health support for pupils and teachers

The DfE has announced new online resources and charity grants to help schools and colleges respond to the impact of coronavirus on mental health and wellbeing.

Grants of £750,000 to boost pupils' resilience 

Grants worth more than £750,000 for the Diana Award, the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Anne Frank Trust will be allocated to help schools and colleges build relationships between pupils and continue to tackle bullying both in person and online.

Pilot project to focus on teachers' and leaders' mental health

A new £95,000 pilot project in partnership with the Education Support Partnership will focus on teachers’ and leaders’ mental health, providing online peer-support and telephone supervision from experts to around 250 school leaders. The School Standards Minister, Nick Gibb, has also written to the members of the DfE's Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on education staff wellbeing, accepting its recommendations which include a commitment to develop a wellbeing charter for the teaching sector. Read Nick Gibb's letter to the Expert Advisory Group here.

Supporting the delivery of compulsory mental health and wellbeing education

A new training module for teachers will also be published next week to support them in giving lessons on the Government’s new Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) curriculum, which will make mental health and wellbeing a compulsory part of pupils’ education in primary and secondary school. The training module will help teachers deliver the new curriculum when it becomes compulsory from September.

Read the full press release on the Gov.uk website here