Sarah Harris for the Daily Mail
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Children are being led to believe they have mental health problems by mollycoddling schemes in school, it has been claimed.
Rising numbers of experts are questioning whether lessons in wellbeing – intended to tackle anxiety – are actually making pupils more unhappy.
Primary and secondary schools are increasingly offering programmes designed to make youngsters less stressed amid exam pressure.
But education specialists have called for closer scrutiny of such courses, raising fears they are making children think normal emotional reactions to stress are a sign of mental illness.
Children are being led to believe they have mental health problems by mollycoddling schemes in school, it has been claimed (file photo posed bv models)
Kathryn Ecclestone, visiting professor of education at the University of Sheffield, has researched how the preoccupation with wellbeing is transforming schools.
She said: ‘Schools are spending so much on these things, and some of them are really, really spurious. People can just set themselves up as wellbeing consultants, and some of these are snake oil [peddlers].
‘It’s a massive industry, and there are questions about evidence – what methods and content are being used in these so-called courses?’. She warned that negative emotions among students are increasingly being medicalised and referred for counselling without questioning.
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This is recasting how mental illness is understood and could also be diverting resources from needy pupils. Professor Ecclestone told the Times Educational Supplement: ‘Feeling stressed and anxious is being presented as a mental health problem, and the slip from “I’m stressed” to “I have a mental health problem” is very easy now. That’s dangerous.’
The Department for Education has said improving pupils’ wellbeing is a priority and wants to include it as a guide to school performance. In recent years thousands of teachers have been trained in mindfulness programmes, which were pioneered at the private Wellington College in Berkshire, to tackle childhood mental health.
Supporters say the techniques learned encourage positive thinking, lessen stress and improve pupil performance.
Rising numbers of experts are questioning whether lessons in wellbeing – intended to tackle anxiety – are actually making pupils more unhappy
But Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment at Buckingham University, called for the happiness programmes ‘to be put under close scrutiny’.
He said: ‘The danger is we lead children to think that perfectly normal reactions are somehow an indication of mental illness. It doesn’t do any favours for children to be wrapped in cotton wool.
‘Part of education is to learn to take the knocks and the good things that happen in life.’
However Kevin Pace, who is piloting a wellbeing project in 31 schools in Wolverhampton, told the Times: ‘Teachers are recognising the pressures that young people are now under. They say, “We can’t stop children from being tested. So what can we change?”’
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