Healthy Minds

Healthy Minds is a school-based project which aims to support the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people. It puts emotional resilience at the heart of children’s health and wellbeing and recognises its impact on their learning, attainment, behaviour and future employability.

We know that schools offer so much more than academic education. They also attend to children’s social, emotional, developmental and health needs. Healthy Minds provides staff with the latest neurodevelopmental and mental health research to help them develop a whole-school approach to supporting and developing these needs.

Schools are in a fantastic position not just to teach about emotional wellbeing but to help children experience it. By providing stable, nurturing and protective environments, schools can help children learn how to regulate their emotions and develop healthy relationships with other children and school staff. These abilities will have a huge impact on their emotional resilience and satisfaction with their lives.

We have found that the Healthy Minds model makes great sense to school staff who have been able to use its principles within the classroom and across school.

Project partners

Healthy Minds forms an important part of Sheffield’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy for Children and Young People which was developed by Sheffield City Council and the Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group.

The project is led by Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust’s CAMHS team working in collaboration with schools across the city.

Healthy Minds key activities

Top tips for schools to get the most out of Healthy Minds

• Think whole school
• Engage Senior Leadership Team
• Be clear about the Healthy Minds offer and include it in the School Improvement Plan (SIP)
• Include all staff in whole school training
• Identify staff who have a strategic leadership role to attend the three-day SAFE training
• Healthy Minds surveys completed asap
• Remember emotional resilience is the bedrock for learning and attainment
• Keep in touch with your Healthy Minds clinician and email them any questions (big or small)
• Plan so the learning from Healthy Minds reaches across school and is sustainable
• Give explicit permission to staff so they feel able to include the Healthy Minds principles within their role