The primary school as a therapeutic community

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the changes underway in the delivery of services to children and young people in schools, not least that OFTSED will soon be routinely carrying out an assessment of mental health provision in schools. This paper considers the policy context to these...

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Main Authors: MacDonald, Shelley, Winship, Gary
Format: Article
Published: Emerald 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32676/
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author MacDonald, Shelley
Winship, Gary
author_facet MacDonald, Shelley
Winship, Gary
author_sort MacDonald, Shelley
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the changes underway in the delivery of services to children and young people in schools, not least that OFTSED will soon be routinely carrying out an assessment of mental health provision in schools. This paper considers the policy context to these changes and the recent initiatives that are informing the evolution of initial teacher training. Alongside the changes in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services there are an increasing number of schools developing counselling and psychotherapy services. How can the School counsellor look to develop a who school as therapeutic community. Design/methodology/approach – A case narrative is presented of a seven-year-old child who was referred to the school counselling service. The narrative draws attention to the array of dynamic interactions, from peers to teachers to parents which the school counselling manager encountered. Findings – It is argued that it is necessary for the school counsellor to have a framework for understanding how all parts of the school work together and it is proposed that we might usefully consider the primary school as a therapeutic community. Originality/value – There are a raft of policy changes and practices in recent years that have altered the landscape of early intervention and the mental health agenda in primary schools. This paper captures this debates and consider how therapeutic community ideology is positioned as an opportunity to think more expansively about mental health in primary schools
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spelling nottingham-326762020-05-04T20:05:27Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32676/ The primary school as a therapeutic community MacDonald, Shelley Winship, Gary Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider the changes underway in the delivery of services to children and young people in schools, not least that OFTSED will soon be routinely carrying out an assessment of mental health provision in schools. This paper considers the policy context to these changes and the recent initiatives that are informing the evolution of initial teacher training. Alongside the changes in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services there are an increasing number of schools developing counselling and psychotherapy services. How can the School counsellor look to develop a who school as therapeutic community. Design/methodology/approach – A case narrative is presented of a seven-year-old child who was referred to the school counselling service. The narrative draws attention to the array of dynamic interactions, from peers to teachers to parents which the school counselling manager encountered. Findings – It is argued that it is necessary for the school counsellor to have a framework for understanding how all parts of the school work together and it is proposed that we might usefully consider the primary school as a therapeutic community. Originality/value – There are a raft of policy changes and practices in recent years that have altered the landscape of early intervention and the mental health agenda in primary schools. This paper captures this debates and consider how therapeutic community ideology is positioned as an opportunity to think more expansively about mental health in primary schools Emerald 2016 Article PeerReviewed MacDonald, Shelley and Winship, Gary (2016) The primary school as a therapeutic community. Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities, 37 (1). pp. 18-26. ISSN 0964-1866 Therapeutic communities Teachers Psychotherapy Early intervention Primary schools School counselling http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/TC-01-2016-0001 doi:10.1108/TC-01-2016-0001 doi:10.1108/TC-01-2016-0001
spellingShingle Therapeutic communities
Teachers
Psychotherapy
Early intervention
Primary schools
School counselling
MacDonald, Shelley
Winship, Gary
The primary school as a therapeutic community
title The primary school as a therapeutic community
title_full The primary school as a therapeutic community
title_fullStr The primary school as a therapeutic community
title_full_unstemmed The primary school as a therapeutic community
title_short The primary school as a therapeutic community
title_sort primary school as a therapeutic community
topic Therapeutic communities
Teachers
Psychotherapy
Early intervention
Primary schools
School counselling
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32676/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32676/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32676/