News & blog

There's many things I miss about my children being young. One of them however isn't the start of the new academic year. As the six week holiday came to an end it was time to start introducing conversation during the morning competition about going back to school. My children were very open with me about their feelings. I was soon to realise that wasn't always the case at the school gates.

“I’m here if you ever need me”. We either heard it as a child, or have said something similar to a son, daughter, niece or nephew. We think we’re doing the right thing, and in part, we are. But rather than just an ear, children need coping mechanisms that they can implement. To rewrite a famous saying, don’t just give your child a fish that relieves their worries for a day. Give them a rod that will feed their wellbeing for a lifetime.

Children don’t always volunteer their feelings, we seem to have to second guess what’s troubling them. How can we stop our children suffering from small worries at such a young age, how can we stop their worries growing with them so they don’t reach crisis point in their teenage years? How can I know what my children are worried about and help them to overcome their fears? 

We keep reading of the impact and increase in Mental Health issues in children and young people but does the Sats procedure contribute towards it? Tracy Gladman, The Worrinots' Education & Business Manager looks into the contradiction surrounding the expectation of the regular school day and the reality of the expectation of Sats week.

From Prince Harry's 20 year fight with mental health, Lady Gaga's PTSD, to J.K. Rowling's battle with depression, there are no shortage of high-profile figures raising awareness of mental health illnesses. So why is there is a shortage of effective solutions to help the growing number of children suffering with depression?

Coming to terms with the loss of a parent at the age of 12 is not something many of us can relate to. Having to cope with such grief in the public eye is simply unimaginable. So how did the Prince cope with the death of his mum, the Princess of Wales? The simple answer is, he didn't. In a very candid interview about his own struggles with mental health, the modern young royal spoke openly about how Diana's death affected his mental wellbeing from childhood. 

Recent studies and aging statistics show us children’s mental well-being needs to be given careful consideration and attention; charities with high profile backing are bringing the subject to the mainstream media.  Despite this issue in a technically driven world, no new solutions have been available to support children, until now.

Last August, Ofsted updated The Common Inspection Framework to reflect changes made to ‘keeping children safe in education’. Schools are now to be judged on the effectiveness of their safeguarding practices and will need to demonstrate that they are meeting their statutory responsibilities. However, to boil it down, perhaps rather flippantly, could Ofsted’s policies and procedures could be likened to having the emergency services on standby, but without the actual 999 end-service? Our Creative Director wonders if the changes truly consider the children who actually need safeguarding?

Nobody likes to experience failure, but it is one of life’s inevitabilities. Everyone has experienced it at some point, but it’s how you deal with it that really matters. Children in particular are often shielded from failure; with the best of intentions in mind, but this doesn’t create the skills they will need in life to cope with failure when it rears its ugly head.

Halloween can conjure up many images. For some it is a fun time characterised by copious amounts of sugar-filled sweets and silly costumes. However, clearly Halloween has a darker side. For parents and teachers though the scariest thing that won’t be seen this Halloween is the truly shocking state of children’s mental wellbeing. But let’s scrutinise Halloween for a moment, ghosts and clowns are usually creepy but Halloween makes them acceptable. Mental health and fears should be treated in the same way.