Suggestions for support as experienced by young people

Suggestions for support

Young people identified how adults can support in schools through whole school policies, prioritising support for mental health and staff professional development.

"The teachers were just really helpful, they sorted that [bullying] out straight away. They had a complete no bullying policy, so they were brilliant" (young person).

"Having more than one school counsellor, because the idea of having to wait five months to see the school counsellor for them to tell you that you're the problem is quite a disconcerting thing" (young person).

"And I think the education for teachers should be that every child is different, and that every child is going to need something different" (young person).

"I suppose just having just someone you can go and talk to if you’re having attendance problems for whatever reason; that was really important" (young person).

Providing opportunities for young people

"All schools should be taught to have support groups and more enrichment opportunities, because I found that the more enrichment opportunities I did, the more friends I had, the more places I had to go, the safer I felt" (young person).

"Enrichment is things that are more creative, that allow people to really express themselves. Like our music theatre. It's something that just allows you to express yourself; I think the idea of being able to just spend two hours looking like an absolute idiot, like running around on stage and doing something random, is so relieving. It's so calming, and it's the same with music, expressing yourself through music or hitting a drum for like, 30 minutes. It's such an expressive thing to be able to do" (young person).

"There are loads of support animals here and they bring them in every couple of months as well and make a really big thing of it,and it's great. I think animals are fantastic; they are just so calming and really relaxing" (young person).

"Someone said that they wanted me to go and look after an animal, we were trusted with something. Somebody said ‘ you can do it; I believe in you’" (young person).