Award winning EdTech provider GCSEPod ran a survey on children’s mental health and attitudes to education

++ Over half of respondents not looking forward to examinations this year ++

++ Almost two thirds of respondents say the chance to take exams is very important to them ++

++ Almost 90 per cent of respondents say mental health is as important as physical health ++

++ Less than half of all respondents say they can talk about their mental health with the adults in their life ++

Award winning EdTech provider, GCSEPod, an Access Group company, ran a survey in January 2022 asking young people aged between 11 and 16 years old about their feelings on returning to education and some broader questions about their mental health. 

To mark Children’s Mental Health Week this week (w/c 7^th February), GCSEPod wanted to better understand how young people are feeling about their education and their futures. GCSEPod also met up with Blue Mental Health Education & Training to discuss some of the best ways to tackle the mental health crisis in schools.  They have written a blog for their website on what they learned, which can be accessed here.

Across the survey we found that pupils from younger years were in general more likely to feel comfortable speaking about mental health with an adult.

The majority of students polled in year 7 to 9 felt that they could speak to an adult about their mental health, in year 10 this number dipped to 49%. On average, students across all year groups felt that they knew where they could go to get support, with the highest responders in year 7 and the lowest in year 11. 

In general, students responded that they were positive about the future; 72% of pupils in year 7 responded that they were optimistic about the coming years. Overall, this positivity stayed consistent across all year groups, with 65% of pupils in year 12 saying they were optimistic.

Children’s Mental Health Week runs from the 7^th to the 13^th of February and this year’s theme is growing together.  Place2Be, the children’s mental health charity, launched the first ever Children’s Mental Health Week back in 2015 to shine a light on the importance of young people’s mental health.  One in six children and young people have a diagnosable mental health problem and this year children, and adults, are being asked to consider how they have grown and how they can help others to grow.

GCSEPod has several free resources on managing your mental health that can be downloaded for teachers or students.  You can find those resources here.

Emma Slater, Head of Education, GCSEPod an Access company said:

“At GCSEPod we are keen to support children, not just with their studies but with their mental wellbeing.  There’s lots to be done that can improve mental wellbeing and I hope that students and teachers will take a look at some of our free resources.”