Health and Wellbeing
a report by Fulcrum Learning
HRAEN commissioned Fulcrum Learning to undertake mapping to enable HRAEN to develop a strategy to support improved mental health and wellbeing for children and young people by ensuring that schools are more supported in promoting health, wellbeing and emotional development outcomes through arts and cultural projects, thereby positioning the arts and culture as a core component of health and wellbeing improvements.
HRAEN worked with the Hastings & Rother Cultural Education Partnership (CEP) to undertake this wellbeing research work and by talking directly to local schools, engaging teachers, parents and pupils some significant areas for development were highlighted.
- There is a clearly emerging group of students who are just missing out on additional support, either pupil premium or health interventions, because they sit just about the trigger levels. This group; the ‘ticking over’ families which government called the ‘just about managing’ often face financial struggles as well as multiple health challenges. This group sees school age children increasingly missing out on opportunities.
- Low aspiration can be linked to deprivation areas which also see higher than average incidents of risky behaviours by young people, lower levels of life satisfaction and reports of bullying.
- Parental engagement is hardest at the bottom end of the socio-economic spectrum and these hard to reach families‘ chief concerns are that their children are happy in school and that they behave, less significance is given to academic progress.
- The time in a young person’s education career where anxiety and stress peek are linked to transition periods, the pressure on young people at these times, not only in school but from peers, can cause significant mental health issues.
What comes through clearly in the report is that teachers and senior leaders are committed to the arts and understand the wellbeing benefits creativity in school has on young people across the board, and that despite curriculum pressures teachers are working increasingly hard to offer quality cultural opportunities to young people.
HRAEN will look to develop a programme on the back of this report that looks to address these issues and has already begun conversations with external partners in how this can be achieved.
The full report can be downloaded below:
| hraen_health_wellbeing_report.pdf |
A Cultural Tonic - Using the arts to promote health.
Intro + Dr Daisy Fancourt, Wellcome Research Fellow – ‘Psychological, physiological, social and behavioural research into the effects of the arts on health’
The Arts, Health and Wellbeing, a new CLA and Place2Be briefing paper from the Cultural Learning Alliance and Place2Be
The Cultural Learning Alliance have launched a new briefing paper, written in partnership with the children’s mental health charity a Place2Be.
The briefing gathers together and sets out why the arts make us happier and healthier and why the arts are key to supporting children’s good mental health.
The briefing paper can be downloaded here or go to: https://culturallearningalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Arts-Health-and-Wellbeing-Briefing.pdf
| arts-health-and-wellbeing-briefing.pdf |