Course summary

Mental health is everybody's responsibility and all schools play a key role in supporting the mental health of their students. This course will enable you to promote positive mental health and wellbeing, help your school adopt strategies which prevent mental illness and improve your support processes for children and young people in schools. As part of your course you’ll: • Gain an understanding of the evidence of effective whole school mental health • Apply your knowledge in your role as a school leader • Learn how to recognise issues such as low self-esteem, anxiety and depression • Take early steps to improve the mental health of children in your care • Develop sophisticated and original interventions to build children’s resilience and nurture appropriate coping mechanisms • Provide an inclusive and enabling environment where every student's mental health can be supported and strengthened This course will adopt a multidisciplinary, whole systems approach to the improvement of mental health and wellbeing. You’ll draw on expertise from school leadership and teaching, organisational change, child therapy, education psychology and social work. And you’ll develop the knowledge, confidence, independence and leadership skills to be able to provide effective mental health support for all your students. By strengthening your self-awareness and reflective skills, you’ll be able to confidently lead on best practice in the support and promotion of student resilience and mental health across your community. Evidence has shown that promoting positive mental health reduces behavioural problems. It also produces an array of positive outcomes, including improved attitudes to learning and better attendance and lower exclusion rates. You’ll develop effective approaches to devising and leading on effective whole school mental health and wellbeing strategies as well as targeted interventions. Your expertise will support pupils, your teaching colleagues and the school's leadership team. You'll have access to expertise within the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. The centre aims to strengthen the mental health of the next generation by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education systems. It will focus on improving outcomes and life chances of children and young people. Engage with our teaching team from Minds Ahead, our partner organisation who supports with the delivery of the course, to find out more about how we can help you improve the mental health of your pupils. Student testimonials “The MA is a course I would recommend to anyone interested in promoting and facilitating a more proactive approach to mental wellness in school. The opportunity to learn and consider different perspectives and how to apply these to our school to facilitate change is refreshing as is the online discussions with other students on the course.” Priya Mitchell, School Counsellor and Designated Lead, The British School Al Khubairat