It was Mental Health Awareness Week this week. To mark the occasion we published a briefing making the case for statutory PSHE to support mental health. We also expressed our support for the Great Get Together, which will be celebrated from the 16th-18th of June.
Mental Health Awareness Week
To mark Mental Health Awareness Week we published a short briefing on PSHE education’s key role in supporting pupil mental health as part of a whole school approach. This briefing summarises evidence we submitted to the joint inquiry by the Health and Education Committees into the role of education in supporting young people’s mental health.
As we highlighted last week this inquiry recommended that the new government commits to proposals that could make PSHE education statutory and flagged up the subject’s key role as part of a whole school approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
The Mental Health Foundation also this week published the results of a NatCen survey in a report on the prevalence of mental health struggles in England, Scotland and Wales.
For three years running our annual member survey has highlighted mental health as the area of PSHE education of greatest concern, so we will continue to support you to address this in the classroom. Besides resources such as our DfE funded guidance and series of lesson plans on promoting mental health through PSHE we run CPD training days on promoting mental health and emotional wellbeing through PSHE.
Great Get Together
On the weekend of the 16th-18th June, The Great Get Together will be taking place across the country. Inspired by MP Jo Cox, who was tragically murdered last year, The Great Get Together aims to bring together communities, neighbours, pupils and friends to share and celebrate all that we hold in common.
The PSHE Association is delighted to have developed resources to support these assemblies. These and other materials – including a short video on community cohesion and activities to support the whole school – will be available to download from The Great Get Together website by the end of May. Schools can register their interest in taking part with a special school assembly on Friday 16th of June.
The Great Get Together will be a weekend, with thousands of activities taking place across the country - ranging from street parties to BBQs, dog shows to scarecrow festivals, bake-offs to multi-faith Iftars to break the Ramadan fast. The Great Get Together website has lots of information on how you can get involved, and resources to help you organise your event.