NAHT
Call us: 0300 30 30 333
Home Menu

Safeguarding and support for pupils

 
Pupil wellbeing icon.jpg

NAHT members are at the forefront of safeguarding children. School leaders are committed to keeping children safe, so they can learn well. NAHT believes that all pupils should receive the support they need to maintain their well-being and achieve their potential, both within school and from wider services including health and social care.

NAHT is campaigning to:

Enable schools to play their part in supporting pupils' well-being

  • Lobby for pupils and schools to get the support they need from wider services including health, social care, police and youth services
  • Influence the implementation of the proposals from the mental health green paper, including the senior lead for mental health and mental health support teams
  • Support schools to access relevant, high-quality training and resources to enable pupils to exercise their right to support for their mental well-being.

 

Support schools to safeguard and protect pupils

  • Engage with the DfE over proposed changes to the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead
  • Influence changes to Keeping Children Safe In Education, Working Together and Sexual Violence and harassment guidance
  • Campaign to improve online safety for children and young people
  • Press the government to ensure home educated children are adequately safeguarded
  • Promote guidance and resources to support schools to protect children at risk of harm including involvement with violence and other crime.

 

Enable schools to support vulnerable groups of pupils

  • Campaign to ensure pupils with SEND can receive the support they need from schools and wider services
  • Press for improved alternative provision and collaborative approaches across communities to support pupils excluded from school
  • Provide information to schools to help them to support disadvantaged children
  • Enable schools to make informed decisions regarding parental requests to home educate
  • Ensure reforms to behaviour guidance and networks is evidence-based and appropriate for all schools and a diverse pupil population. 
 

Children's Mental Health Week 2021

NAHT is delighted to support Children's Mental Health Week once again this year.

In its seventh year, Children's Mental Health Week will run from 1 to 7 February 2021, and it is organised by leading children's health charity Place2Be.

This year's theme is 'Express yourself', and it focuses on finding ways to share feelings, thoughts or ideas through creativity. Importantly, this year's theme highlights that being able to express yourself is about finding a way to show who you are, and how you see the world, that can help you to feel good about yourself.

Place2Be has developed free resources for parents, carers and schools to download (available here). These resources include things like assembly guides and classroom activities based around the theme of expressing yourself in different ways as well as the opportunity to access free training with Place2Be's Mental Health Champions – Foundation programme.

There's also a social media guide including template tweets and images to help you spread the word and raise awareness about activities during the week.

Place2Be is inviting everyone – children and adults – to explore different ways that we can express ourselves and the creative ways that we can share our feelings, thoughts and ideas.

Lots of activities will be happening throughout the week, including a Guinness World Record attempt for the 'biggest sing' in partnership with Young Voices. There will also be an assembly hosted in partnership with the Oak National Academy and BAFTA Kids and an online conference focused on 'Creativity as a healing tool'.​

First published 25 January 2021

Related articles

;