Promoting positive mental health and wellbeing in primary schools

Current state of children’s mental health The discussion about children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing in schools has become a much talked-about topic for very good reason. Half of all mental ill health manifests by the age of 14, and 75 per cent by the age of 24 (Kessler et al., 2005). In the UK, the mental health of children does appear to be worsening, with more children experiencing clinically impairing anxiety or depression than ever before (NHS Digital, 2018). The data doesn’t tell us exactly why children appear to be experiencing increasingly poor mental health. The rise in mental health issues may be because, as a society, we are better at talking about and assessing mental health problems. It may also be because of other factors, such as increased usage of social media, school and exam pressure, or the effects of austerity. What is certain, however, is that there is a greater need to understand children’s mental health over time to get a better feel for wh