6.3. Supporting students with mental health needs

The ICAM (Including Children Affected by Migration) programme is an Erasmus+ programme designed to ensure that children who have been affected by migration can access education. The programme helps schools to create a safe and secure environment for children affected by migration to enable them to take full advantage of their education.

RefugeesWellSchool (RWS) is a European-funded Horizon 2020 project carried out by seven partners in six European countries. Its overall objective is to further implement the evidence-based role of preventive, school-based interventions in promoting refugee and migrant adolescents’ mental wellbeing, and how they can be implemented in diverse educational settings.

With mental health issues having been multiplied among young people on a global scale, UPRIGHT is a project that teaches the skills needed for good physical and mental health. It is being implemented in schools, and early adolescents, their families, and all school staff of the participating schools are involved.

The Joaquim Ruyra Elementary School is located in a disadvantaged suburban district of Barcelona. In the 2016-2017 school year, 92% students were immigrants representing 28 different nationalities (including Pakistan, Morocco, Georgia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Senegal, and the USA) or from minority background (Romani). The school has a 40% mobility rate.   National and international press have referred to the school as the miracle school as it had achieved academic outcomes above the average in the Catalan standardised tests, outperforming elite schools in the Catalonia region. All classes in the school feature group work 40% to 60% of the time. The groups mix students of different abilities, genders and nationalities.  The small groups are designed to ensure that no one is left out, and students are encouraged to participate actively.  Each group is facilitated by an adult (e.g. a classroom assistants, a parent).  Psychologists and special education teachers may also work in the classrooms, and they support volunteer parents, teachers and the students.  The extra support and student interaction are considered as essential for supporting and reinforcing children’s learning. 

The project partners designed and implemented a new anti-bullying programme in schools in five EU countries. It drew on the experiences of existing programmes and practices originated by the project partners working in different cultural contexts.  It provided further evidence of effective approaches to the reduction of bullying in schools that will inform the development of improved child centred, whole school strategies for adoption at European level.

Since 2011, when a new school leader was appointed, the school has focused on the following goals: to promote active participation of students; foster inclusion; nurture autonomy and a sense of responsibility. To reach these goals, the school adopted interactive approaches reorganising learning spaces and educational activities. Key interventions encompass:• Outdoor schooling (nursery school). The aim is to stimulate sensory experiences by encouraging direct contact with nature. • Bag-less learning (primary school). Students only wear a light purse to hold their personal belongings and a notebook for homework tasks while school is furnished functionally with advanced learning tools.• Workshop rooms and flipped classrooms (secondary school). Teachers personalise their working space based on their functional teaching needs in terms of furniture arrangement, tools, books etc. In flipped classroom, time and self-study activities are reversed where students prepare for a class by watching a pre-recorded lecture or then lead the discussion.

This project was set up more than 10 years ago to reintegrate students who refused to go to school. Since 2007, the programme has focused solely on students who suffer from school phobia, anxiety disorders or depression. The programme is unique in Austria and is publicly funded.

This set of structural indicators for inclusive systems in and around schools can be used by school heads, teachers, parents or other school partners to reflect on the inclusiveness of their school. The indicators are phrased as statements with yes or no answers, which can guide school actors in self-evaluating in a range of relevant areas. Inclusion in schools is seen as supportive and quality learning environment with welcoming and caring schools and classrooms. It is accomplished by preventing discrimination, approaching learner's needs holistically (emotional, physical, cognitive and social), and recognizing learners' talents and voices. The key areas covered by the indicators include: a whole school approach to developing inclusive systems teacher and school leadership quality promotion of system integration of policy and practice a multidisciplinary focus on health and welfare promoting parental involvement and family support and meeting the needs of particularly vulnerable individuals and groups The choice of indicators draws upon key EU Council and European Commission policy documents and recent international evidence on inclusive education. This tool is part of a wider Report on Structural indicators for inclusive systems in and around schools, which provides a background and explanations for each of the indicators. Authors:Paul Downes, Institute of Education, Dublin City University Erna Nairz-Wirth, Vienna University of Economics and Business Viktorija Rusinaitė, PPMI

Rights Respecting Schools (RRS) is a UNICEF-UK driven approach that integrates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a whole school approach to child rights education. The overall aim of the approach is to create a participative, inclusive, and safe school culture, where respect for every member of the school community is guaranteed. The UNICEF Child Rights Education (CRE) Toolkit provides guidance on how to become a Rights Respecting School. Schools adapt the RRS approach to their context. The approach influences relationships between every actor in the school environment and is applicable in any school context. The framework outlined in the RRS toolkit is intended to provide a central organising principle for the entire school and, by extension, for the families and community in which the school is situated. There are three phases of development. The second and third phases (Levels 1 and 2) are similar. The aim is to execute the action plan that is developed during the Recognition of Commitment phase in order to reach the four standards of the RRSA: 1. Rights-respecting values underpin leadership and management 2. The entire school community learns about the CRC 3. The school has a rights-respecting ethos 4. Children are empowered to become active citizens and learners.

This project is designed to support the development of Social-Emotional Learning skills (SEL) for 11-14 year olds, and to promote Peer Support to tackle and reduce bullying. SEL Programmes improve the student's social, emotional and academic skills, which include more pro-social behaviour and positive attitudes toward the self and others, and lower levels of emotional distress. Peer support systems reduce the negative impact of bullying on victims and make it more acceptable for them to report it. It follows a whole-school approach which includes young people, staff, parents and the wider community. Thus, this programme is a departure from the two-dimensional view of bullying as victim and bully, and instead looks at the social and group dynamics in a school or leisure environment to address a range of factors which contribute to bullying. ENABLE has trained a team of Ambassadors in each participating country, who are available to provide information and guidance to any school or organisation wishing to implement the programme.