You may have read worrying article in the Herald this week about the poor state of mental health among Scotland’s teenagers - http://bit.ly/2bMxDjS

Following the release of The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), a study by St Andrew’s University, the Scottish Youth Parliament has published a report which described the issue of mental-ill-health in Scottish young people as “our generation’s epidemic.”

The report is sobering, bringing to light the extent to which Scotland’s teenagers are suffering with various mental health issues, with a laundry list of possible causes. Exam stress, pressure from school work and managing expectations, unable to switch of from the pressure created by social media, anxiety about the future, distress caused by the scenes of violence and terror we see in the news every day. Depression, anxiety, self-harm, stress, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorders; all of these issues can have unthinkable consequences if ignored, so having access to the right support services is essential.

What’s more concerning than the extent of mental-ill-health in teens is how little support there is for young people, who are starting their adult lives with serious mental health issues. The Scottish Youth Parliament are calling for a review of the existing governmental service – The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).

Getting the right help and support can make an enormous difference to the longevity, seriousness and outcome of a period of mental-ill-health. There are a number of charities who offer support services for young people will mental health issues, and a huge wealth of information for parents on how best to support their children through a period of poor mental health.

SAMH – The Scottish Association for Mental Health - https://www.samh.org.uk/

Loads of great resources on their website for understanding mental health and ways to help someone who is struggling with poor mental health. We especially like their article which explains various mental health problems in simple terms. 

Understanding the problem is the first step to solving it! - https://www.samh.org.uk/mental-health-information/mental-health-problems-explained.aspx

YoungMinds - http://www.youngminds.org.uk/for_parents

YoungMinds has a great section dedicated to parents who are concerned about the mental wellbeing of their child or teenager. There is a free helpline, an email support service and guides to help parents cope with looking after the mental wellbeing of a child or young person.

Penumbra - http://www.penumbra.org.uk/services/

Penumbra provide a lot of free or affordable practical mental health support services, such as one-to-one support, issue based group sessions and sessions in schools and communities. They run sessions that are specifically tailored to young people as well. Again, their website provides a wealth of information to help parents understand, and provide the best possible support. http://www.penumbra.org.uk/

Mental Health Foundation - https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/c/children-and-young-people

The Mental Health Foundation provides some advice on how to help your child stay mentally well, and what organisations can help if required.

Finally, if your child or teenager is facing a crisis and in distress, please contact NHS 24 on 111 or your GP directly for immediate help.

Partnership Schools at Webster's High School in Angus

As some of you will know, SPTC is running Partnership Schools Scotland, a pilot project which aims to create and develop partnerships between schools, communities and families to improve outcomes for young people.

Partnership schools have an Action Team for Partnership (ATP) made up of parents and teachers who work together to plan a strategy, events and activities that will build their relationships with families and the local community.

The ATP at Webster’s High School in Kirriemuir, Angus, set a goal for their school to run a charity shop in partnership with pupils, families, school office staff and the local community, to raise funds for the school. Wendy Scott, chair of the ATP at Webster’s, tells us a little bit about how the event worked:

“As one of our Partnership goals we ran a pop up charity shop in one of the towns local to Webster’s. It was a tremendous success not only in the amount of money that we raised - £2360.00! - but it also brought the pupils family, school and community together.

The charity shop was a great way to get parents who would not usually be involved to come along and join in, as we were not asking for money, only items that they no longer needed or used and their time. Because of all the donations, the shop had a great choice of clothing, toys, games, kitchen utensils and books.

One parent commented that she hadn’t been involved with the school or parent council before because she thought they were quite exclusive, but being involved with the charity shop gave her the chance to get to know other parents and she really enjoyed herself.

The pupils enjoyed working with the community, collecting items, stocking the shop and clearing it out again once the week was up. This is something that we would repeat again as it was a great start to our Partnership Schools work.”

The pop-up charity shop is a fantastic example of how a school can make use of its social resources – pupils, families and community partners – to raise funds for the school whilst also building positive relationships.

If you have any examples from your school of great work with families and the community, please share your experience with us in the comments.

Partnership Schools is currently taking place in six local authority areas: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Angus, Perth and Kinross, Falkirk and West Lothian. To find out more, please click here.

Some of you may be familiar with Upstart, to others it may sound like something you do to your car to get it going again. Thankfully this blog isn’t about to do a U-turn and become about motoring.

So – to be clear - Upstart is the title of the campaign to introduce a kindergarten stage for children aged three to seven in Scotland.

What do we mean by kindergarten stage? Basically instead of the formal schooling that we are all familiar with from age five, children aged three to seven will have more opportunities to learn through play (especially outdoors); to develop their spoken language and social skills; and to build sound foundations for academic achievement.

Evidence from around the world shows that children under the age of seven benefit from an approach to education that is about experiences, that supports their all-round physical, emotional, social and cognitive development, rather than pushing them towards early academic achievement. 

You may remember an article we shared on Twitter and Facebook a few weeks ago about schools in Finland: http://bit.ly/29hebN2

In fact, in the most recent review by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the three most successful nations in terms of academic results were Finland, Estonia and Switzerland. One thing all three have in common? They all have a play-based kindergarten stage for three to seven year-old children.

Such a radical change in how children are educated may seem intimidating, especially if at first glance it seems to postpone academic development. In actuality, the evidence seems to indicate that there is no educational advantage to an early start. Many studies have shown that children who are taught literacy skills from the age of five don’t do any better in the long run than those who start at seven – performance evens out by the time they reach age ten.

Additionally, some research studies have actually linked an early start in formal education and early pressure for academic achievement to social, emotional and mental health problems as children develop into their teens and adulthood.

People often think of play and work or school as being completely different things, but they are really one and the same. Play combines physical and active learning and if it is properly guided, it can help children develop all the skills they will need to be lifelong learners. Music, art, drama, stories, songs and rhymes develop young children’s listening, language, memory and thinking skills, all needed for good literacy.  

Active, creative play develops the problem-solving skills and understanding of concepts and 

ideas needed for maths and science.

Our next Parent’s Voice survey is going to be about Upstart – we want to know what our members know about Upstart and how they feel about its ideas. In the meantime while the survey is being developed, here is some more in depth information about Upstart and the arguments around it:

National Foundation for Educational Research – Compulsoryage of starting school in European Countries 

Upstart Scotland 

New Scientist: Should schooling start at age 7? 

University of Cambridge – School starting age: the evidence 

Hard Evidence: at what age are children ready for school? 

Last week the Supreme Court ruled on the matter of the Named Person provision that is part of the Children and Young People’s Act, passed by Scottish Parliament last year.

The ruling from the Supreme Court shows that the concerns we have held since the legislation was announced were justified. We are not lawyers or civil servants or politicians, we are an organisation committed to effective parental involvement in children’s education, but we could always see that there is a major problem with the Act.

The key thing that has to be in place –or at least building - for good parental involvement, is trust. From our perspective, the Act was an enemy of trust, between parents and their child’s school, health services, social work, police and so on. If information about a family, parent or child can be shared without consent, the inevitable consequence is a breakdown of trust.

We have always recognised that the Named Person idea came from a good place – it is intended to make sure that concerns about a child are addressed early and that there is co-ordination between services. However, if we are asking parents to be partners in their children’s education, they have to trust the other partners to be honest and fair. Sharing potentially sensitive information without permission is not only against the law - as found by the Supreme Court - it is also against what we, and the government with the National Improvement Framework, are trying to achieve.

While we are pleased that the ruling has instructed that the information sharing element of the Act must be changed, we are disappointed that it has taken so long to get here and that the genuine concerns of SPTC – which we have expressed over and over again – have consistently been dismissed and ignored. We have been characterised as the Awkward Squad, fundamentalists, right wing. We’ve even been accused of supporting child abuse. None of this is true.

We care about families and we want children to thrive. We know that sometimes families do not do the best for their children, and we want social workers and other services to be there to support and help children in these situations. We also recognise that sometimes information has to be shared where a child is at risk of harm – this is already in law.

At a time when we know many families are finding it harder to get support for their child, we are worried about the money being spent on a service which, to us, is dysfunctional. We don’t believe that a parent or young person sharing their concerns, health details or any other issue should have to worry that this confidential information could be shared without their permission. It’s that simple.

Sadly, SPTC have not been invited to be involved in clarifying and tightening the legislation. We will await the amendments in hope that what comes out of this is a workable piece of legislation that supports children and families without breaching their rights.