The results published in our new report ‘Disturbing currents: wellbeing and mental health of children in Wales’ show that parents in Wales are extremely concerned that too many of their children are struggling with mental health issues.
But judging from the responses to our survey, most parents also really appreciate that teachers are doing as well as they can in challenging circumstances to help their students.
What are parents worrying about
When we asked independent pollsters, Persepctus Global, to speak to 750 parents in Wales, they reported that a third (35%) think that their children’s mental health is either only fair or poor. 12% revealed that their children go into school each week hiding their feelings of distress from their teachers.
Perspectus also reported on the gap between boys’ and girls’ mental health. Welsh parents think that 28% of their girls have worse mental health than last year, compared with 19% of their boys.
And they also told us that more than one in ten (12%) of Welsh parents say that their children struggle with feelings of anxiety on a daily basis.
It’s a sombre read, especially when you add in the facts that, compared with last year, 15% of children in Wales are less trusting of others, 14% are less able to deal with feelings of unhealthy perfectionism, and one in 10 (9%) are less able to choose an appropriate response to life challenges.
However, by and large, parents also think schools are doing as well as they can in challenging circumstances to help students struggling with mental health issues. Twice as many parents (42%) think schools are well equipped to handle student mental needs as do not (21%).
How Compass can help
To be able to assess the state of their students’ wellbeing, schools must be able to accurately record behaviour, track it over time and allow teachers to analyse and report it.
This is where Compass can help. Our Management Information System (MIS) – which is now in over 3,000 schools in Australia, Ireland and the UK – is highly adaptable and allows schools to monitor student wellbeing accurately and in real-time. Our Chronicle module can be configured to support additional learning needs, record and refer safeguarding issues, reward positive behaviour, analyse trends over time and produce automatic reports for parents and colleagues.
Chronicle’s trigger system allows teachers to set thresholds – merits earned, detentions served, attendance, etc – that will ‘trigger’ an automatic communication. It means that teachers can receive wellbeing alerts on students or groups of students, while the parent app included in the Compass package allows teachers to communicate directly with parents and parents to communicate with the school.
If you would like a demonstration of Compass MIS or would like to know more about Chronicle, please contact Claire Wensley at cwensley@compass.education
