Two in five (42%) parents say their child now suffers regular anxiety, a significant jump from less than a third (30%) before the pandemic

Emotions Journal

Keeping emotions to ourselves can be harmful. This resource helps children and young people build emotional intelligence and resilience through reflection and processing.

Gratitude Journal

When we’re feeling down, it can be easy to forget about the things we have in our lives that make us feel more positive. This practice encourages us to remember these things!

5 Ways Young People Can Cope With Stress

Sometimes it’s helpful to have a list of tips to walk us through stressful and anxious moments. Take a look at 5 ways you can encourage healthier stress responses for the young people in your care.

Top Tips

Listen to them. Never underestimate the power of staying quiet and listening. Your child or young person will look to you for reassurance. Set your own feelings aside and give them the attention they need to feel seen, heard, and helped. This will increase their trust in you!

Validate their feelings. Growing up is a highly emotional time. It is likely the emotions those in your care have are complex and confusing for them. Remind them that feelings like this are (typically) normal responses to stressful, painful, and sometimes difficult situations.

More than one in six parents feel unable to cope with their child’s concerns and worries

Having Supportive Conversations

Our daily lives are full of news stories about world events, this can create difficult emotional responses. This shareable provides helpful advice on having supportive conversations.

Daily Schedule

When life gets busy, it’s good to make sure everyone in your house is on the same page! Use this printable schedule to organise your family’s activities in a tangible format.

Tackling Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation

There are many deliberate attempts to create widespread panic through our daily media. Learn more about how to spot this by reading through our article.

Top Tips

Create an environment of trust and love your child will want to return to. Remind them that they can talk to you about anything. If they choose to discuss their struggles or worries with you, remember to listen actively, use open questions, and be reassuring in your responses.

Use your words and actions to support. Your reactions are key to helping those in your care feel protected and loved. Tell them you love them. Give them hugs or hold their hand. Allow them space when they need it, but remind them you are there for them whenever they need.

Almost one in four (23%) parents said that they had noticed their child going online or using their phones more as a result of their increased stress.

The Impact of Self-Help Apps on Children and Young People

Our online safety experts have taken a closer look at the possible impact ‘self-help apps’ are having on younger generations, and why they are turning to digital help.

Random Acts of Online Kindness

The online world can be a cruel place, but we hope this shareable will make it a little kinder! Encourage those in your care to be kinder online with our top tips here.

What Are Your Words Worth

How often do you think about your online words? This activity pack will help young people reflect on their own online comments and the impact they may have on others. 

Top Tips

Screen time habits. Too much time on phone screens, and especially social media, can negatively affect our mental health in various ways. Instead of restrictions, encourage the young person in your care to take breaks from their phone to develop some healthy screen time habits.

Encourage online safety. Engage young people in a conversation about keeping safe online by showing them how to block and report, and ask who they would talk to if something makes them feel uncomfortable. Use our Online Safety Centre together to help build resilience.

Worryingly, more than one in 10 (11%) parents have also noticed their children self-harming.

Self-Harm and Peer Support

To help you engage with this increasingly relevant topic, you’ll find important information, advice, signs, and guidance in our article that looks at self-harm in younger generations.

Talking to Young People about Suicide

It’s important to remember that thoughts of suicide can happen to anyone at any time for any reason. Find advice on how to start this difficult conversation in our article.

The Effects of COVID-19 on Eating Disorders

The stresses of the pandemic had a significant impact on the prevalence of eating disorders in young people. We’ve gathered tips for recognising signs and symptoms here.

Top Tips

Take it slow. A young person may not be ready to talk when you are. Explaining there will be other opportunities to connect may help them feel at ease, and could encourage them to approach you. It should never be a one-off conversation. The aim is to create a dialogue together.

Use open ended questions. Consider the words you use. By starting with broad questions, it’s easier to gradually become more specific with details. It also allows the young person in your care to have an active role in the conversation instead of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers.

Trusted Adult Resources

Who Are Your Trusted Adults?
Primary Edition

Who Are Your Trusted Adults?
Secondary Edition

The Safer Schools’ Trusted Adult resources encourage young people to think about who the adults in their lives are that they would turn to in a time of worry or crisis.

Resources include posters, lesson plans, and PowerPoint presentations. Each set of resources are tailored to either primary or secondary children, so you can help engage the children in your care with the issues that matter most.

Who Are Your Trusted Adults?
Makaton

To make our videos more accessible to children and young people with special educational needs, we’re incorporating Makaton, a special language programme that uses signs and symbols to communicate.

Signposting to Help

The digital world is 24/7; it’s inside and outside of the school gates, so you need a service that does the same. Safer Schools is your digital safeguarding toolkit, including a customisable App, Resources, Training and more.

Available at no additional cost to school and Local Authority customers insured by Zurich Municipal, Safer Schools is a multi award winning safeguarding ecosystem, created to educate, empower and protect your entire school community.

Are you a Safer School?