Tackling Anxiety in Schools

Lessons for Children Aged 3-13

Chris Calland, Nicky Hutchinson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367620974
• eBook ISBN: 9781000413908
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

Anxiety is the biggest mental health problem in children, and research tells us it's on the rise. Modern life creates many challenges and pressures for them and the COVID-19 pandemic has only added to this growing problem.

Tackling Anxiety in Schools supports all children to get into good habits of recognising their feelings of anxiety and equips them with a repertoire of coping strategies they can use in their day-to-day lives.

This book explains how schools can create a safe climate for children and introduces a course of interactive lessons for all ages of primary school and the years beyond. It uses evidence-based preventative strategies, which are suitable for the whole class, based on the needs of children at each stage of development. The intervention programmes include lively activities, resources and courses of lessons which emphasise positivity and are engaging and enjoyable for pupils.

With over 55 years' combined experience teaching and working on mental health issues in schools, the authors of this book have focused on providing practical advice and lesson plans that schools can use directly in the classroom. Being able to recognise and deal with anxiety is a vital skill for good mental health and will benefit children for life. The insightful and structured lessons in Tackling Anxiety in Schools teach children the coping skills they need to develop emotional resilience and thrive.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

I just need a straightforward course on anxiety that I can use with my class

Dominic, year 6 teacher

Why should schools be delivering lessons on managing anxiety?

Anxiety is the biggest mental health problem in children, and it’s on the rise. Our modern society has created so many pressures for children, and although we’re often powerless to control these pressures, what we can do is teach children the coping skills they need to develop emotional resilience and thrive.

This book offers a practical guide to schools on how to discuss anxiety with children and help them to recognise and manage their feelings effectively.

Who we are and why we wrote this book

Schools are struggling with how to manage young children’s anxiety, and in our day-to-day consultancy work in schools we are constantly asked for advice and guidance on this. We believe it is vital to begin work on mental health and resilience when children are young. We have often shared the teachers’ frustration at the lack of practical help available to support them with children’s anxiety, which is such an important area of well-being.

We’ve both spent over 25 years as education consultants, specialising in children’s behaviour, mental health and emotional well-being. Our work involves training, school advisory work, counselling and supervision of school staff, parent support, research and university teaching. It is the day-to-day advisory work we do in numerous schools, the meetings we have with parents and teachers, the hundreds of classrooms we visit and the vulnerable children we observe that really give us an insight into the mental health problems that need addressing. More importantly, it also helps us plan how we can intervene effectively to provide much-needed support to children.

We were originally class teachers so we have an understanding of the practical realities of managing a class of 30 children. We remember only too well both the pleasures and pressures of life in the classroom. Because of our teaching background, we are particularly mindful of the workload school staff are managing on a day-to-day basis. In every school we support, we work with staff who recognise that the mental health and well-being of children are paramount. They attend training on the topic and work hard to help those children in school who particularly struggle with their emotions. We talk to so many school professionals who have a clear grasp of the theory of child mental health and a good understanding of the needs of vulnerable children. They are aware that many of their pupils are struggling with anxiety at many levels, and they want to offer practical support to those who have suffered trauma or have attachment concerns. At the same time, however, they are exhausted with trying to fit everything in! The curriculum demands are many and the expectations of helping children reach academic targets or complete a programme of study in every subject can feel relentless.

Teachers tell us that guidance on tackling children’s anxiety often frustrates them by offering little concrete advice, states obvious things they already do or gives suggestions which don’t take into account the many responsibilities and demands of a busy classroom. There are many books which discuss anxiety and provide some interesting and helpful theory but not always any practical suggestions to use with the children. Others offer a few practical ideas or suggestions to try in class but they are often more suitable for older pupils. There are some fun activities to be found on the internet to provide ‘brain breaks’ in class, as well as worksheets and engaging one-off mindfulness exercises, some of which are included in the resources section of this book. Teachers can choose to seek them out and use them regularly or in a single lesson, but we feel that these on their own are insufficient to effect change.

In our experience, teachers are looking for more than a one-off lesson or a series of short activities. They want a clear course on anxiety that is meaningful, manageable and accessible. A series of lessons which are contained and can run over the length of a term. Material that is age-appropriate, practical and fun for pupils. Something that provides explicit lesson plans, ideas to share with parents and engaging ways for children to learn strategies which can be re-visited throughout the school year and embedded into classroom practice. Material which is appropriate for all children.

Our belief has always been that we need to equip our youngsters with the ability to manage their emotions and we need to start as early as possible. Over the years, we have often been involved in creating curriculum for schools, providing evidence-based, practical lessons to develop children’s social and emotional learning and promote their mental well-being. As former class teachers, we ensure our lessons are designed with a view to the many demands of running a classroom. We are always mindful of the busy teacher with 101 things to attend to who needs clear lesson plans that are easy to implement.

The aim of this book is to focus on one important area of mental health, namely anxiety. Teachers are asking us for advice on this topic with increasing frequency these days. We created this book to help all children get into good habits of recognising their anxiety and to equip them with a repertoire of coping strategies they can use in their day-to-day lives. ‘Tackling Anxiety in Schools’ contains a series of practical activities and lessons on anxiety designed to be easy for teachers to work with and appropriate for all children from the early years up to the beginning years of secondary school.

Will talking about anxiety just make the problem worse?

Teachers sometimes worry that raising the issue of anxiety in school can cause children to focus on it too much. However, we can see from the research that this is already a problem for so many of our children and is impacting on their ability to manage both school and home life. It would be remiss of us as educators to ignore their mental health and pretend it isn’t there.

It is true that the fear of anxiety can exacerbate the problem. When some children experience the physical sensations linked to anxiety, they worry that they are physically ill, others think that they are the only ones who have anxious thoughts and feel isolated and different. Once children have feelings of anxiety that aren’t recognised or addressed, they can escalate fairly quickly so that young people can feel overwhelmed by the sensations and thoughts connected to this emotion. They may not have the language to articulate what they are feeling and that is when unhealthy coping mechanisms can begin.

By explicitly teaching children about anxiety, bringing it out into the open, addressing it head on and normalising it, we can reduce some of its negative influence on children’s well-being. We are giving the message that everybody has worries and feels anxious at times, that it is one of their normal emotions, is not dangerous and there are practical things that children can do to help themselves.

Providing every child with an understanding of this particular emotion empowers them and should give them a grounding to help them cope with their feelings as and when they happen.

Of course, there are some children whose life experiences or additional needs can lead them to be particularly anxious and who may need extra external support or medical interventions. Although they may need a more focused and structured approach, these children will still benefit from experiencing specific lessons in their classroom, hearing the experiences of others and practising strategies to self-soothe and calm themselves in school.

What’s in the book?

The book provides a school-based early intervention programme to reduce anxiety levels in children. The practical, step-by-step lessons and activities help teachers have conversations about anxiety with children in a relatable and engaging way. It is a comprehensive guide for focusing on anxiety with our youngest children, right up to those who are at the top end of primary school and beyond.

‘Tackling Anxiety in Schools’ provides a section on how to develop children’s coping skills in the early years. There is a set of seven lessons designed to be run in the classroom for children aged 5–7 and another course of ten lessons for older pupils aged 7–13. There are also additional lessons to help children manage anxiety caused by transition and change.

Every lesson is interactive and contains detailed step-by-step lesson plans with a list of objectives and resources. Each one builds upon the previous learning so that children learn how to recognise their anxious feelings and develop a range of skills and strategies they can use to help themselves. They are based on an approach which increases awareness of thoughts, feelings, body sensations and actions, and reduces anxiety and stress levels.

We have also included some information about engaging parents/carers, as we know how important it is for children to have a consistent, shared message from all the adults in their lives and to be able to practise strategies at home.

Throughout the sessions, we emphasise positivity and solutions rather than problems. Our aim is that whilst learning some ways to cope with anxiety, pupils find the lessons enjoyable and fun too. The best learning takes place when children are relaxed and content!

These lessons and activities have been run across a number of primary schools, and the feedback has been extremely positive:

• ■ ‘It’s been so great to have such clear lesson plans’
• ■ ‘The children loved the activities’
• ■ ‘It’s been fun to run the sessions’
• ■ ‘I can’t believe what a difference it’s made to my daughter … she’s taught me how to be calmer!’

We have created a resource which we would have wanted to use ourselves when we were busy classroom teachers.

CHAPTER 2
Anxiety

It is now clear that Britain has a really severe and worsening problem with anxiety which can have devastating effects on people’s lives.

Professor Nick Freemantle, UCL

Everybody experiences anxiety in their lives at times. It’s a normal and useful part of our emotional range. Anxiety is a feeling of fear or apprehension about what is to come, and it is often a response to a particularly stressful event or a set of circumstances. It is our brain’s way of reacting to stress and alerting us that we’re under threat. It can protect us from danger – preparing our bodies to be ready to fight, flee or freeze.

Feeling anxious is normal when we are facing challenging situations, such as taking an exam, making a speech or attending a job interview. It may often prove useful at such times, spurring us into action and making us stay alert and motivated in order to achieve our goals.

Sometimes, a series of challenges or stressful experiences can build up gradually without a person recognising the impact that experiencing frequent feelings of stress and anxiety is having on them. We often use the analogy of a ‘stress bucket’ which slowly fills up with these feelings until they overflow – we may not always notice the build-up and it’s only when the feelings tip over that we feel overwhelmed, exhausted and unable to cope.

For many people, there is a clear and direct link between their stressful experiences and their feelings of anxiety, but others suffer from a more generalised type of anxiety which can feel overwhelming; ‘I’m not sure why, but I wake up with a feeling of dread and feel anxious all the time’. They may find it hard to relax or to control their constant worrying.

Anxiety feels different depending on the person experiencing it. When someone experiences anxiety for any length of time, they can suffer from a range of physical and psychological symptoms:

Physical symptoms

Psychological symptoms

■ Tingling in the hands and feet ■ Shaky hands and legs ■ Fast breathing - Hyperventilation ■ Dizziness or feeling light headed ■ Breathlessness ■ Needing the toilet more or less often ■ Feeling sick ■ Lack of appetite ■ Butterflies in the stomach ■ Stomach ache ■ Tight chest and increased heartrate ■ Headaches, backaches or other aches and pains ■ Hot flushes and Increased sweating ■ Inability to sleep ■ Dry mouth ■ Tearfulness ■ Restlessness, inability to sit still

■ Feeling hyper-alert, tense and on edge all the time ■ Having a sense of dread, fearing the worst ■ Thinking that you might die ■ Constantly thinking you have health problems ■ Seeing things speeded up or slowed down ■ Feeling as though everybody can see you’re anxious, and that people are looking at you all the time ■ Feeling separate and detached - as if you are observing through fog or through a window ■ Needing lots of reassurance, worrying that people are upset or angry with you. ■ Feeling like you want to hide or run away to escape from the situation ■ Rumination, thinking about a situation over and over again ■ Worrying a lot about things that might happen

If these physical and psychological symptoms are persistent, they often have a damaging impact on our daily lives. They may affect our eating and sleeping patterns and our ability to function or thrive. Long-term feelings of anxiety can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms and, in extreme cases, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) eating disorders, self-harm, addiction and depression.

In recent years, there has been growing concern that more people are suffering from anxiety.

UK Research indicates that there has been an ‘explosion’ in those suffering from anxiety in the last decade. It has trebl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Anxiety
• 3 The emotionally safe school
• 4 The emotionally safe classroom
• 5 The anxiety curriculum
• 6 The theory behind the activities
• 7 Running the sessions
• 8 Engaging parents and carers
• Anxiety in the Early Years: Ideas and Strategies
• Anxiety Lessons for Children Aged 5–7
• Anxiety Lessons for Children Aged 7–13
• Transition: Additional Lessons for Children Facing Change
• Resources ideas and activities