Raising Attainment With Wellbeing

Raising Attainment with Wellbeing (RAW) for Senior Mental Health Leaders (SMHLs)

Our Senior Mental Health Leader (SMHL) professional development programme will help you create a whole-school approach to mental health and wellbeing that will impact positively on all members of your school community.

Department for Education (DfE) grants are now available for the 2023/2024 financial year. Please book your place for an October 2023, January 2024 or April 2024 start.

Information Pack

About the programme

Learning Level: Beginner, and Intermediate, Advanced Senior Leaders also welcome

This Senior Mental Health Leads (SMHL) training programme is unique.

The Raising Attainment with Wellbeing (RAW) for SMHLs (Senior Mental Health Leaders) Training Programme will help participants put mental health and wellbeing at the heart of learning, teaching and leadership within their learning communities, at a time of considerable social and emotional pressures that extend beyond the school gates.

Not only will participants develop the knowledge and skills specific to the position of SMHL, through understanding their leadership role in creating an inclusive learning environment that supports and nurtures the highest possible levels of emotional wellbeing for children and staff, RAW is a complete and extensive professional development opportunity open to every member of staff, including Governors.

The programme is Department for Education (DfE) quality assured.

Over the duration of a calendar year, through online workshops and coaching sessions plus individual personalised support opportunities, participants will:

Devise an effective strategic plan, aligned to the eight WSA (Whole School Approach) principles, informed by a comprehensive audit of current practice and provision
Put in place process and policy that will monitor mental health needs (of children and staff) and identify appropriate interventions, as well as whole-school professional development needs
Through collaborative action research using the RAW resources, begin the journey of whole school improvement, involving individuals and teams through aligned and personalised training plans

You’ll also be able to share best practice with peers from other schools.

Expert Trainers

The training will be led by a pool of talented coaches, with a vast and varied experience of education improvement and mental health/wellbeing developments.

Raising Attainment with Wellbeing is pioneering a new approach to coaching: Coaching for Wellbeing, supporting a critical systemic move from “a way of doing” to “a way of being”.

How is the programme delivered?

Senior Mental Health Lead trainees (SMHLs) will join a cohort of 10-20 practitioners, who will network and collaborate over the course of a year to learn together and share practice and implement change management plans.

There will be monthly 2-hour online interactive workshops and coaching for wellbeing sessions led by an experienced RAW wellbeing coach, with periodic inputs from subject matter experts.

Practitioners will also benefit from monthly “drop-in” sessions open to all cohorts of trainees.

Each trainee will keep a PLJ (Professional Learning Journal) containing reflective activity, audit frameworks and links back to the extensive bank of materials within RAW, which accumulate to form a senior mental health lead record of professional development.

These journals will form the basis of regular individual online tutorial sessions (minimum of three hours over the duration of the course) culminating in the submission of a change management plan based on the professional learning and development undertaken during the course.

The RAW Managed Learning Environment has a built-in community of practice element to facilitate sharing and collaboration across all active education setting.

Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes are aligned with the eight principles outlined by Public Health England (PHE) and the Department for Education (DfE) in their Promoting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing: A whole-school or college approach publication. Upon completion of the programme, leads will be able to:

Leadership and management: Champion efforts to promote and support mental health and wellbeing, bringing about strategic change to deliver a practical whole-school approach.
Identifying need and monitoring impact of interventions: Understand and plan appropriate responses to pupils’ mental health and wellbeing needs.
Targeted support and appropriate referrals: Ensure children and young people can get timely and appropriate support.
Staff development: Support their own mental health and wellbeing, and that of their pupils.
Creating an ethos and environment that promotes respect and values diversity: Promote respect and value diversity.
Enabling student voice: Ensure the voice of every pupil is heard and valued, and influence decisions.
Working with parents, families and carers: Ensure everyone works as a team around the pupils, with a consistent of approach and shared aims and strategies.
Curriculum, teaching and learning: Promote resilience and support social and emotional learning.

Who is it For?

Our programme is for Senior Mental Health Leads, or colleagues aspiring to such a position, at primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in England. We already serve

independent provision, and an international network of schools. This programme has the reach to meet a wide range of wellbeing and mental health imperatives.

It is important that participants have the positional authority to implement strategic whole-school change or have the support of your senior leadership team to fulfil the programmes’ requirements successfully.

Funding Eligibility

Fee

The fee for our SMHL programme is £2,450+VAT

The includes all workshops, training and individual support sessions for the designated SMHL, plus full access to the extensive RAW professional development portal for every member of staff, including Governors (whatever the size of your school community) for the duration of the course.

Department for Education Grants

Please book your place on one of our summer or autumn cohorts. Department for Education grants are available for the 2023/2024 financial year. You are likely to be eligible for a grant if you:

are a state-funded school or college that has not previously applied for SMHL funding
have appointed an SMHL that’s being supported by the senior leadership team to implement a whole school approach to mental health. You can apply for a grant on the DfE’s website.

To confirm your place, you’ll need to: · Check your eligibility · Reserve your grant by completing the DfE application service form · Book your place by contacting us and initiate payment: education@microlinkpc.com

The DfE will contact you by email requesting evidence of your Microlink/Teaching Times course booking

Self-funding

We accept self-funding applications for our Senior Mental Health Leads programme. Contact education@microlinkpc.com if you have any further questions or queries.