Education

Education is changing in Wales and Health and Wellbeing have a central role in the new curriculum. Interest in mindfulness in schools and colleges across Wales

Supporting our children’s wellbeing should be the top priority for Wales

Even before Covid, research showed that mental health problems were steadily worsening, especially among young people. We know that early prevention is vital: 50% of mental health problems begin before the age of 15 years and 75% by 24. The pandemic has made things much worse. Despite the efforts of professionals, learners of all ages have experienced anxiety, uncertainty and disrupted education. 

Research shows that staff wellbeing is the major factor in creating an environment which supports learners’ wellbeing. But Education Support’s 2020 survey found that 62% of education professionals and 77% of Education Leaders said they were stressed.

The Health and Wellbeing Area of Learning and Experience in the Wales 2022 curriculum offers a framework that helps schools respond. But they need practical and accessible methods that both help children with immediate difficulties and also equip them with skills for lifelong resilience. 

Mindfulness can meet this need. A substantial body of research shows that mindfulness can help learners, leaders and staff cope with challenges, connect with themselves, other people and the natural world, flourish through gratitude, appreciation and kindness, and empower change fostering the greater perspective that supports better decisions.

Schools across Wales are exploring how mindfulness can integrate into the curriculum and school life, supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of staff, learners and families within the Whole School Approach. In the wider education field, it’s developing in youth work, FE and HE. 

A range of high-quality evidence-based training programmes support learners’ mental and emotional wellbeing and relate directly to the new curriculum. The Mindfulness Toolkit for Wales sets out how education settings can develop a strategic mindfulness journey that involves leaders, staff, learners and families, building the foundational values of awareness and compassion into the school and local community.

A lot is happening, but we need active engagement from policymakers for the transformative potential of mindfulness to be realised.

Education in Wales is undergoing a systemic and  cultural shift. The new Curriculum for Wales, which will be in place by 2022, draws on best practice from across the world and identifies Health and Wellbeing as one of six Areas of Learning and Experience (AoLEs). The aim is to support learners throughout their education, and encourage them to achieve their potential in the widest sense.

These policies herald a new emphasis on wellbeing in Education, in line with the framework for the whole of Wales laid down by the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, 2015.

Alongside these developments is growing concern about the emotional and mental health of children and young people in Wales. In April 2018 the Welsh  Assembly’s Children and Young People’s Committee produced the Mind Over Matter report, whose wide-ranging recommendations for enhancing provision included mindfulness. These concerns are reflected across the Education system in policies such as the Health and Wellbeing Youth Worker Guide and the policies being developed in Further and Higher Education.

Since March 2019 people from across Wales and the different Education sectors have worked together to create a comprehensive guidance document covering all sectors of education, drawing on examples of good practice. We have also created a statement of good practice and drafted guidance for places that are introducing mindfulness on how to develop a long term, sustainable plan.

Contributors have included representatives of the Education Consortia, professional associations, Pioneer groups, Estyn and the National Academy for Education Leadership, Healthy Schools Coordinators, Educational Psychology, local authorities, the NHS, the Welsh Government, and the Further Education, Higher Education and Additional Learning Needs sectors, as well as headteachers, teachers already using mindfulness in their schools, academics, mindfulness teachers and youth workers.

The Guidance document is already being used by people in the field in planning their engagement with mindfulness, by Education Consortia to support schools in implementing the Health and Wellbeing AoLE, and by Healthy Schools Co-ordinators to support schools in taking their agenda forward. We expect this work to develop further with the publication of the final curriculum in January 2020.

Meanwhile, the Ministers for Health and Education are leading the development of a Whole School Approach to supporting children and young people’s emotional and mental health that ensures that services work together to support learners (the Draft Framework Guidance for the implementation of the Whole School Approach will be published for consultation in December 2019). The Mindfulness in Education Working Groups’ document will form part of the Toolkit that supports the Guidance, embedding its advice on introducing mindfulness at the heart of Education in Wales.