Current policies and practices

The main practices raised by interviewees when discussing the work that their own schools were undertaking to promote pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing were outside agencies, followed by policies/strategies within the school and then school structures and organisation. By far, outside agencies (including counselling) were the most frequently mentioned practice.

4.5.1 The use of external agencies and organisations

In total, and as referred to earlier, 16 different external agencies were named. The most frequently mentioned agency/organisation was Aware Defeat Depression. Interviewees in four schools reported that this organisation had delivered sessions in their school.

Nine of the ten schools involved in the interviews reported that they have a counselling service available in school. All of them avail of the half-day allocation from the Department of Education Northern Ireland (DENI) in relation to the Independent Counselling Service for Schools (ICSS) and two schools specifically mentioned that they fund extra counselling time within their school. As will be remembered from the previous section, the Independent Counselling Service for Schools was also the most commonly used programme reported in the survey, with 89% of schools indicating that they availed of this service. All nine of the interviewees who availed of the Independent Counselling Service for Schools (ICSS) were very positive about the counselling service and saw a very real need to have counsellors in school. Two Principals recommended that more counselling time should be made available to schools.

However, it is interesting to note that interviewees did not always seem to explicitly link this type of direct service with what they counted as ‘good practice’ in promoting pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing. When asked to specifically outline what they deem to be ‘good practice’, for example, interviewees rarely mentioned external agencies. In fact, and also in line with the survey findings, the school ethos and their general approach to promoting pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing the most frequently mentioned theme in terms of good practice.

There was very little critical analysis of the external agencies, and the majority of interviewees simply listed the people they bring in to school. However, a Vice Principal talked about the need to

review the use of external agencies and organisations in her school, because there are so many available:

And we’ll also at the end of this school year carry out an annual review of the external agencies’ support for the school. So I will want to look at the like of Action Mental Health and any organisations like that and see how they fit into the bigger picture of pupils’

emotional health and wellbeing. And sometimes new organisations come on board and you can’t respond to everything.

(Vice Principal) Another interviewee also suggested that we may not need all of the agencies and that some of the work is being duplicated:

Maybe we don’t need all these organisations because the work is being duplicated, one doesn’t know what the other is doing. Whatever way resources are being spread it needs to be looked at to say how can we make this a better resourced area so that people have the confidence that young people’s problems can be addressed at a very early stage. I don’t see that happening at the present time and the bigger the problem the less chance of it being tackled.

(Principal) A further interviewee commented on how difficult it is to find out ‘who is out there and what they do’. Given the range of agencies and organisations that visit schools in Northern Ireland, it would therefore seem to be beneficial to look further at the impact of the work of external agencies and to evaluate how the services they provide meet the broader requirements of schools to promote pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing.

4.5.2 School policies, strategies and curriculum

Following the emphasis on the use of outside agencies, the next major area discussed in terms of current practice by interviewees was their own schools’ policies and strategies and also the curriculum delivered. In particular, personal development programmes and their school’s pastoral policy were the most frequently mentioned of these, followed by health and safety, health and nutrition promotion and discipline policies and strategies.

The following quotes highlight the emphasis placed on the pastoral care policies and practices:

The pastoral care embraces the whole ethos and everything that’s done to ensure that pupils achieve in our school.

(Vice Principal)

We have a personal development programme for Years 8 to 12 that’s citizenship, their personal development, employability, Learning for Life and Work. So it’s all there and the whole focus is on getting our children skilled so they can cope in situations in the world outside.

(Vice Principal) We do what’s called Common PD [personal development] lessons at the beginning of every school year and we would have a structure of certain things we would want the tutors to cover with their classes, PD is given one period a week.

(Principal) We have our pastoral system that has been applauded by the Department. I see the pastoral support that the children get as important as their academic progress because a child can’t learn if a child’s not happy, the two things most come together to support the child in moving forward to follow their dream. And give the child the skills and capabilities to deal with emotional difficulties and talk about their emotional challenges and to seek expert help, which we as teachers don’t always have.

(Principal) The majority of respondents also commented on health and safety and health and nutrition promotion and see these as part of the promotion of emotional health and wellbeing:

Likewise on the wider issues of their nutritional standards and so forth; of the things they need to do, keeping fit and keeping healthy. It’s all part and parcel of that, a healthy body and a healthy mind and they have to take responsibility for making sure that these things happen. It’s not someone else out there who’s going to do it for them. So there is a big difference, certainly in terms of the eating habits of pupils. 10 years ago they’d have been drinking coca cola, now we don’t do fizzy drinks and you’ll see bottled water, that’s the main drink. We don’t do a tuck shop, all they can get is bottled water. The pupils are thinking in terms of healthier choices and that’s coming through the canteen whereas before it used to be all chips and burgers and sausages.

(Principal)

Some respondents talked about the importance of an effective discipline strategy in relation to promoting pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing:

Our discipline process is trying to instil upon pupils that they are responsible for their own actions but at the end of the day actions have consequences. There comes a point whenever suspension is there, hopefully never not expulsion but that reflects the real world.

(Principal)

I think the way we have developed has placed myself and the VP [Vice Principal] at the centre of the pastoral care system and I suppose one other thing is from the very start we set out to have a non-punitive discipline policy so I think that reflects on people’s emotional health as well. One child wrote once that our school has no punishment but lots of discipline. I do think that makes a difference, when it works right it should make the children feel more secure. To know that we’re not here to punish them, we’re here to help them. So if you say that from the outset it makes all the difference.

(Principal) The survey results also indicated that there were numerous policies in place, subsumed under the pastoral care policy.

4.5.3 School structure and organisation, supportive staff and school ethos

The majority of respondents made reference to school structures and organisation; especially in relation to Form Tutors, Heads of Year and Key Stage heads and their key responsibilities in terms of following the pastoral care policies and practices:

But in the day-to-day stuff we use a house system where there would be a house master responsible for a quarter of the school. Under key stage heads, there would be six tutors in charge of six classes, which means a smaller group and more effective, more consistency and greater facility for fast and appropriate responses.

(Principal) Okay, we have our form teachers who are very much encouraged to be pastorally minded, that they are not just there to mark the roll. They have 20 minutes with the youngsters in the morning and I would try to impress upon the Heads of Year to impress upon their form teachers that pastorally they are the first point of call for these children. I, at the beginning of the year, give form teachers a package if you like and in that package we would aim to ensure that all children know what to do if? So we would like to think that all children would know that I’m the designated teacher, that they can tell a friend, they can come with a friend to any member of staff they want, they can go to their form teacher, their Head of Year but the most important thing is to talk

(Vice Principal) Within these structures and policies the importance of supportive staff was also emphasised, particularly their good relationships with children, that they care about their students and that they are approachable. Indeed, it will be recalled that 100% of survey respondents reported that ‘pupils know who to contact when they need support’ and also that students have a ‘number of people to turn to.’

The school ethos and general approach to dealing with issues relating to pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing was also talked about and interviewees referenced the importance of parental involvement, a child centred approach, an open door policy, developing positive habits and

emphasising pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing in their school. For example, the following interviewee talked about putting the students first and always making time to listen:

My policy from day one has always been to have an open door to students. You might see in some other place ‘no students beyond this point’ well I don’t want that anywhere in the school. Students will come and knock at my door and come in at any time of the day. You’re sitting here and if a student came to the door, I would excuse myself to you. I think students know that. We claim to be child centred, I think we actually are child centred.

(Principal) It is interesting to note that the most commonly mentioned facilitators to promoting pupils’

emotional health and wellbeing mentioned in the survey – namely, school ethos, pastoral care, staff commitment and positive relationships – were the same messages coming through in these interviews.

4.5.4 Good Practice

As part of the discussions, interviewees were specifically asked to highlight what they deemed to be good practice in terms of promoting pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing. Reflecting the survey findings, the most frequently mentioned example of good practice was in relation to school ethos.

For example, communication of issues and general approaches to communicating with young people – such as an open door policy, do what you say you will, positivity and respect – were mentioned most commonly by interviewees. Supportive staff was also a theme cited as crucial to good practice.

In fact school ethos was the most frequently mentioned facilitator to promoting pupils’ emotional health and wellbeing within school, staff commitment was the third most frequently mentioned and

‘relationships’ was the fourth most frequently mentioned facilitator.