Roisin McEvoy, Head of Schools Training and National Programmes at the Anna Freud Centre
Thinking differently – our manifesto for change – includes a number of specific education recommendation calls for schools to:
- Include content in initial teacher training on how to build good mental wellbeing across the school community and provide annual training opportunities for all school staff and leaders
- Invest in programmes delivered in partnership with schools that help parents understand and support their children’s wellbeing
- Improve access to preventative mental health programmes in schools for children and young people with mild-to-moderate mental health needs
- Create a more inclusive school system by promoting educational models that value social, emotional and physical development as well as academic achievement.
Of course, education staff cannot do this on their own but need additional resources, support and training. You can read more in our whole manifesto here. In this blog I wanted to focus on our call for change in the way we train new teachers.
Challenging times
For those of us who have been working in schools for many years, it can be disappointing to hear about the negative perceptions of teaching as a career and discouraging experiences of trainees and early career teachers.
The latest Initial Teacher Training Census (2023-24) revealed that only half the secondary postgraduate teachers needed were recruited into teacher education in the last year.
Retaining the teachers who are recruited is also challenging, with 12.8% leaving within a year of qualifying, 20% leaving within two years of qualifying and fewer than 70% still teaching after five years. This presents a considerable barrier to ensuring that all our children have the teaching staff they need.
Whilst we don’t know enough yet about why so many new teachers are leaving the profession, we do have some good evidence about what trainee teachers and their mentors think could help. Trainees (93%) and their mentors (95%) tell us that it is important for trainees to receive specific information about looking after their own mental health and wellbeing.
Thinking differently
Anna Freud is a mental health charity and we’ve been supporting children and young people for over 70 years.
We believe it’s time to listen to trainees and to think differently about initial teacher training and the ways we support early careers teachers.
It is to be welcomed that the newly combined Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework has an increased focus on the needs of trainees and ECTs when supporting pupils with SEND and mental health needs.
We were pleased to see greater emphasis on the importance of relationships in schools and in particular the requirement that new teachers learn that teaching and modelling a range of social and emotional skills is essential to supporting pupils’ development.It is to be hoped that the changes in the framework will lead to changes in training and mentoring for trainee and early career teachers that put their own mental wellbeing and that of their students at the heart of everything they learn about being a great teacher.
What would different look like?
Although positive work has begun, we believe more can be done to help improve teacher training. Below are just a few examples of what we think would make an impact:
- Work is only just getting underway to develop the professional learning materials needed to support the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework. We’d like to see new content include more on teacher wellbeing, for example the experience of secondary trauma and how to access support for self and others.
- Alongside basic mental health awareness training for all, we need new approaches to behaviour and a particular focus on how to better include and support the wellbeing of neurodivergent students and those with SEN.
- Schools have an important role to play in the wellbeing of our children and young people, too. As we laid out in our manifesto, we believe this needs to start with teacher training ensuring we are giving teachers the knowledge and skills they need to support their students in school.
Find out more
Read more about our manifesto here. See what training we offer for all school staff here.
Hear more from us on this and other Whole School Approaches to mental wellbeing by joining our Schools in Mind network.
You can also book a call with me to discuss how we can support your trainee teachers and early career teachers by emailing school.training@annafreud.org
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
