Free online mental health training launched for teachers

Children's mental health charity Place2Be has launched a free online mental health training course for teachers.

The Mental Health Champions - Foundation programme enhances professionals' understanding of children's mental health and introduces approaches that foster positive well-being in schools and communities. It is being made available for free to 50,000 UK teachers and school-based staff.

The training programme involves: a five-week programme; a dedicated Place2Be professional to join discussions and aid online learning; online training accessible via any device at a time to suit you; and regular start dates to choose from.

Catherine Roche, chief executive of Place2Be, said: “For children and families who were already struggling before the pandemic, we know that lockdown and the increased uncertainty of the past few months has been exceptionally tough, and some of this might result in challenging behaviour when we get back into classrooms. Place2Be is proud to offer its mental health training programme for free to 50,000 UK teachers, many of whom have received little to no professional training in children’s mental health. I urge all teachers to register.”

To coincide with the launch, Place2Be has released new data which reveals that only 34 per cent of teachers and school staff feel confident they would be able to recognise mental health and emotional well-being problems from the behaviour of their pupils.

The data, gathered from 1,564 teachers and school staff during lockdown, reveals that 27 per cent said managing classroom behaviour feels stressful or causes them anxiety. Only 28 per cent of respondents felt confident that they could intervene to support pupils with serious social, behavioural or emotional issues, and this dropped to 17 per cent for teachers with less than six years’ teaching experience.

Of concern, only 52 per cent of all respondents feel confident in approaching their school’s management team about their own mental health and well-being, and 23 per cent say it is unlikely they will still be a teacher in five years’ time.

However, more positively, after months away from their pupils, the majority (68 per cent) say they are looking forward to the next year of teaching.

The ability to offer the training is thanks to grants from Morgan Stanley and the Law Family Charitable Foundation.