Category: Publications

SSAT Children’s Charter: A Pledge for Children

“On Wednesday 26th April 2023 school leaders across all phases and settings, along with partners and organisations joined the online launch of the SSAT Children’s Charter: A Pledge for Children.

SSAT Chief Executive, Sue Williamson, welcomed Professor Barry Carpenter, and Matthew Carpenter, Principal of Baxter College who, together, shared the rationale and context behind the creation of the charter and what our children and young people need now: our response to a reshaped, redefined 21st century childhood.

SSAT, with Professor Barry Carpenter and Matthew Carpenter, led a seminar in December 2022 ‘Thinking about Children’; where leaders from secondary, primary, special schools and universities, together with partner organisations met to consider the daily lived reality of children and young people now, post pandemic, in order to shape the detail within the Children’s Charter.  We are delighted to be able to share our charter and those six principles with you now.

Individually, we all bring our unique experiences and expertise but together we are stronger.”

A call to action

  1. Join us in making your pledge to all children and young people:

By making your pledge to our Children’s Charter, you are recognising the needs of children and young people now, and making your commitment to the 6 principles that underpin the charter.  

Sign up here

  1. Spread the word:

Share the document Children’s Charter: A Pledge for Children widely with your colleagues and networks and invite them to join us with these calls to action. 

Join us in spreading the word on social media using the hashtag #ChildrensCharter.  Don’t forget to tag us @ssat

Download a copy here

  1. Share your voice to bring the Charter to life:

We invite you to share how your school or organisation is seeking to make a difference to children and young people and the impact that your work is having. 

We will bring your voices together to share best practice, recommendations and actions to policymakers. 

Get in touch

  1. Keep up to date:

Look out for further opportunities to be involved and upcoming events we will share through email or on our website.  Be part of the response and help build momentum – together we are stronger.

Children’s Charter webpage

CAMH Mental Health in Schools Project

A leading mental health charity is paving the way for improving
research-informed practice in schools, to support children & young people’s mental health & wellbeing

The Association of Child & Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) has recently launched an initiative aimed at teachers, to enable schools to access and put to use resources that can genuinely make a difference to the mental wellbeing and educational outcomes of young people.

ACAMH, a charitable membership organisation made up of a multi-disciplinary group of clinicians, practitioners and child mental health researchers, and publisher of the internationally acclaimed Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), Child and Adolescent Mental Health, and JCPP
Advances, has been sharing best evidence in order to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people for more than six decades.


In recognition of the rising mental health challenges faced by children and young people, ACAMH has kick-started its Mental Health in Schools initiative, with the aim of producing a series of webinars for teachers which disseminate research-informed, evidence-based knowledge and practice around current key issues in the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.


The first of this pilot series, known as ‘Ask the Expert’ aims to increase the knowledge of teachers and consists of 4 x 75-minute live webinars, with an expert guest speaker and hosted by Professor Barry Carpenter. The webinars have been developed in collaboration with the education charity, Coram Life Education. Topics are rooted in the new statutory relationships, sex and health
education (RSHE) curriculum, with Screen Time and Sleep delivered in the Autumn term of 2021 and Anxiety and Common Mental Health Conditions coming in Spring 2022.

The second of this pilot series, coined ‘Pedagogy in Practice’, is aimed at creating engaging resources for teachers relating to mental health teaching themes in the RSHE framework and is closely aligned to the Ask the Expert series. Pedagogy in Practice aims to stimulate innovative practice in teaching and learning to meet curriculum requirements and support mental health across the school. The pilot phase will include the development of two modules: Sleep and
A leading mental health charity is paving the way for improving
research-informed practice in schools, to support children & young
people’s mental health & wellbeing Anxiety, and will be developed in partnership with The Chartered College of Teaching during the first half of 2022.


Professor Barry Carpenter, CBE, OBE, D. Litt, PhD – ACAMH Board Member and Mental Health in Schools Advisory Group Chair said: “We are committed to helping improve the knowledge needed by Teachers to deliver the statutory Relationship, Sex & Health Education (RSHE) curriculum requirements, specifically in relation to subjects pertaining to mental wellbeing. We are also looking to build capacity for differentiating and personalizing content to meet individual,
as well as group needs”. He goes on to say: “Schools are an anchor institution in supporting young peoples’ mental wellbeing, we believe ACAMH and our partners Coram Life Education and The Chartered College of Teaching can truly make a difference by sharing the best evidence in a way that is accessible
and tailored to the needs of teaching professionals”.


ACAMH plans to develop a wider series of Ask the Expert & Pedagogy in Practice resources over the course of the next 18 months, incorporating up to ten of the most pertinent topics within the RSHE framework, such as Trauma, Self-Harm and Bereavement.
-ENDS

For more information, comment and images, please email Matt Kempen at:


matthew.kempen@acamh.org


About ACAMH
“Sharing best evidence, improving practice.”


Formed in 1956, ACAMH is a multidisciplinary membership organisation for the psychological needs of children and young people.


Over the years, the Association has maintained the tradition of multi-disciplinary membership, a diverse group of clinicians, practitioners and world-leading child mental health researchers, working across an array of child and adolescent mental health domains whose work reflects the keydevelopments which took place within child and adolescent mental health over the years; theories and practices which are still of relevance to today’s membership.


ACAMH is committed to advancing standards, disseminating knowledge and enhancing clinical practice to best meet the psychological needs of children, young people and all those involved in their care and development. It aims to achieve this through promoting best practice, providing training, publishing high-quality international journals and papers, and facilitating a strong network
of national and international professionals.


ACAMH publishes the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), internationally recognised to be the leading journal covering both child and adolescent psychology and psychiatry, with the highest quality clinically relevant research in psychology, psychiatry, and related disciplines; and
Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH), a high quality, peer-reviewed journal focused on child and adolescent mental health services research, which has articles for practitioners describing evidence-based clinical methods and clinically orientated research. In addition, JCPP Advances has recently launched, which is a high quality, high impact open access journal in the field of child
psychology and psychiatry and related disciplines.


ACAMH has a growing Branches network, each of which plays an important role within ACAMH. Run by volunteers they are the driving force behind our grassroots activity: in staging events, promoting the work of ACAMH, and providing insights at a local level. In recent years and following demand from professionals in other countries, our network and partnership initiative has grown to include
Malta, Egypt, India and Russia

Download

‘A Little Guide for Parents on Home Schooling During Lockdowns.’ – Laura Purser, University of Buckingham

As the author says in her introduction to this excellent resource guide for parents.

“Knowing how to home school is not something parents are born knowing. Even fully trained teachers and those working directly in education, may find themselves thrown as to how to navigate their way through these circumstances flung upon them. Balancing the emotional turbulence of the pandemic and all that comes with it is enough to throw us off kilter. Add to that the media diet of fear and breaking news, social media notifications and a constant stream of conflicting and ambitious information, it can be a minefield to know what to do for the best”

This booklet not only offers thoughtful guidance, (from someone who is home schooling her child) but a reflective piece that enables parents to frame their own emotions and experiences of home schooling in Lockdown. On top of that it offers some useful tips,  and points to invaluable resources.
At a time when there is nothing to support parents in these most challenging of times, this free guide is extremely welcome.

 

Click the cover below, to open and view or alternatively please click here 

 

parenting_in_a_pandemic_pd_download

A Toolbox of Wellbeing – Helpful strategies & activities for children, teens, their carers & teachers

A Toolbox of Well Being – Dr Tina Rae

Highly recommended, as schools plan their Recovery Curriculum. Rooted in a secure evidence base, this book offers lots of practical suggestions for teachers as they support children’s return to school, and life after lockdown. There is a strong rationale and educational model for the activities, and I recommend it over some of the spurious materials being put out for commercial interest currently.

http://www.hintonpublishers.com/isbn_template.php?isbn=978-19-12112-55-5&x=73&y=84

 

 

 

 

Having a Test for Coronavirus: a new wordless story [Books Beyond Words]

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Having-a-COVID-Test---promo

As lockdown measures ease, testing is more important than ever for controlling the spread of coronavirus. We felt, however, that more was needed to support people with learning disabilities and autism to understand what testing involves, how it feels and subsequently to prepare and give informed consent.

Working with Lucy Bergonzi who illustrated Beating the Virus, we’ve published: Having a Test for Coronavirus. The new story illustrates both a drive through testing centre and a home test, so that a person can decide which option is right for them and prepare. We’ve also published a shorter version of the story which shows just the home test option, as well as an A4 picture sheet illustrating just the drive through testing process. On the reverse of the picture sheet there is information for health professionals/ testers on how to make the test accessible.

As with all our coronavirus support resources, these are all completely free to download from our website:

https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/coping-with-coronavirus/#testing
Please spread the word about these new resources and pass them on to anyone who may find them helpful.