Share your views on Government plans for young people and mental health

Currently there is a Government Consultation at http://engage.dh.gov.uk/youngmentalhealth

Please share your views and comment on their website if you would like to.

This is what I have found working with children from both the state and private sector aged 5 to 18 over the last 23 years.

I find with Primary School bullying is a key issue. Bullying that is physical, verbal and emotional, it tend to take place in break time and most of the time in the playground.

With children from secondary school bullying can take place outside the school gates as well with the older children.

I find that those taking GCSE’s and A-levels who are over anxious, their anxiety is often caused by their inability to sort the information that they are learning into groups and as a result of this and other things, they become over anxious.

Obviously if they are far behind this can cause them anxiety as well.

I teach them Autogenic Training which is a set of mental exercises which I have found very beneficial for the ones who practice it.

Some children often those whose English is not their first language have difficulty getting into higher groups in secondary school.
So if they are in a C or D group, some schools in London do not allow them to take their GCSE’s in those subjects. Therefore they can get very demoralized after joining the school, knowing that they will not being able to improve their grades.

If the schools provide additional catch up groups this can help them not give up on education and join the street gangs.

I also consider that some of the secondary schools are too large and its partially their size that contributes to children’s academic failure. If the large secondary schools could have smaller schools say of 160 students within them with a separate identity and teachers using all of the secondary facilities but only teach the 160 in their care.
I think this would help reduce stress of the students and of the teachers.