3.2 Health and wellbeing

Children spend a significant proportion of their time at school (approximately 190 days in each school year), which means that schools are well positioned to support all children’s health and wellbeing through the learning opportunities and the learning environment itself.

Policy makers in the UK recognise the importance of personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education and, from 2020, governments across the four UK nations introduced new statutory curricula to provide education on health and wellbeing. A ‘whole school approach’ in this area recognises the importance of working collaboratively with all parts of the school community – children, families and staff – and may include behaviour policy, curriculum design, care and support for children and engagement with parents.

At times this health and wellbeing is supported in schools through collaborations with specialist external agencies, e.g. for physical health needs a school may refer to the school nurse, General Practitioner (GP) and Community Paediatricians; for mental health needs a school may refer to school nurses, GPs, school counsellors, clinical or educational psychologists and specialist services such as the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). 

Activity 7

Allow 15 minutes

Task 1

Drawing on your own experiences, what opportunities have you had or are there for supporting children’s health and wellbeing in a primary setting?

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Task 2

Watch the following video. How is playing and learning outdoors said to support children’s health and wellbeing?

Video 4 Health and wellbeing through outdoor learning

Transcript

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Discussion

You may have noted that the educators in the video clip promote the outdoors as a ‘natural experience’, suggesting that the outdoors can enrich children’s health and wellbeing. The educators remark that children do not have the same opportunities to play and experience the outdoor world and taking the children outside they have a freedom to run and climb trees that they don’t have in the classroom. One educator described a young girl who in the classroom was quiet but outside had a different level of confidence allowing her to engage in in-depth conversations. These opportunities are described as helping the children to build resilience and confidence that has positive impacts in the classroom.

If you’d like to know more about mental health among children, you might like to explore this OpenLearn course: Supporting children’s mental health and wellbeing.