At Central Park Primary School in the London Borough of Newham, mental health is not a themed week or a bolt-on intervention. It is the organising principle of how we work.
In a borough that had the and where schools frequently receive Operation Encompass domestic abuse alerts, trauma is not an abstract concept.
In this context, traditional school-based mental health models - focused on short-term interventions, external referrals and one-off workshops - are not enough. You cannot “intervene” your way out of structural disadvantage. If efforts to improve mental health are not aligned with efforts to address poverty, instability and stigma, they will only ever scratch the surface.
When traditional models fall short
Schools in high-need communities are often encouraged to adopt structured mental health programmes that sit separately from classroom learning. These might include workshops, small group sessions or targeted interventions for pupils identified as vulnerable. These have value. We use them ourselves.
But in areas like ours, three problems frequently arise.
First, access to specialist services is inconsistent. Waiting lists are long and thresholds high. In practice, this means children may not meet the criteria for external support until their needs have escalated. In the meantime, schools are left managing serious mental health concerns day to day, without always having the capacity or clinical expertise that these cases require.
Second, many models are overly generalised and don’t sufficiently address the nuanced environmental stressors driving distress in the first place: overcrowded housing, food insecurity, domestic abuse, financial hardship and exposure to violence. The nature of these stressors will vary from place to place and from school to school.
Third, wellbeing is too often treated as separate from core school systems. It becomes an initiative, rather than a lens through which curriculum, behaviour, attendance and parental engagement are viewed. In high-need areas, that separation simply does not hold.
So, what is the alternative? At our school, we have adopted a model informed by data and underpinned by a system of support to meet families’ basic needs.
Taking a holistic approach
We measure pupil wellbeing through structured audits and pupil voice tools, enabling children to reflect on how they are feeling and allowing us to track patterns over time. Encouragingly, outcomes improve year on year.
This year our upper key stage 2 pupils completed the . Overall, anxiety levels were not high. However, we identified low mood among a significant number of boys.
When we looked more closely, the drivers were telling: worries about transition to secondary school, housing insecurity, family financial pressure, tiredness linked to gaming habits, health concerns and domestic stress.
Working with our child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) Wellbeing in Newham Schools (WINS) practitioner, we adapted staff CPD, strengthened transition support and introduced targeted interventions through our behaviour mentor. We delivered workshops for parents and continued to signpost to trusted organisations such as Childline, YoungMinds and the NSPCC.
Alongside targeted support, we have used , a free game-based digital therapeutic tool recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which helps pupils to self-manage worries, fears and anxiety.
Crucially, however, these tools sit within a wider ecosystem of support.
Addressing disadvantage as a mental health strategy
Many of the pressures affecting our pupils stem from instability beyond the school gates. Our response therefore includes a weekly food pantry, toy library, working with Newham Family Navigators (a free “one-stop shop” service providing early support, guidance and advice to families), parenting programmes, nutrition kitchen sessions for families and health literacy workshops for parents.
More recently, we identified a lack of self-confidence among some of our older girls and mothers when walking around the local area of East Ham. In response, we have arranged free self-defence classes, delivered by Community Links.
A family who can access food with dignity or attend a parenting session before difficulties escalate is a family under less stress - and reduced stress at home translates into improved emotional regulation, attendance and readiness to learn in pupils.
Mental health and disadvantage are inseparable in communities like ours. School policy and practice must reflect that.
What other schools can replicate
A common mistake that school leaders make is to treat wellbeing as separate from everyday school life. If workload, behaviour policies or assessment practices undermine children’s sense of safety and belonging, no workshops or assemblies will compensate.
Leaders must also consider staff wellbeing as integral. In high-need settings, compassion fatigue is real. Clear boundaries, shared responsibility, supervision structures and a culture where staff can speak openly about the emotional demands of the work are essential components of sustainable change.
Not every school has access to additional funding, clinical experts or the local partnerships that we do. But many elements of our approach are replicable:
- Start with robust wellbeing data and act on what it tells you.
- Integrate mental health into existing systems rather than adding new layers.
- Use scalable, accessible digital therapeutic support, like Lumi Nova, to offer pupils non-stigmatising, self-guided options.
- Build visible, consistent relationships with families and address basic needs.
In high-need areas, improving mental health and tackling disadvantage must go hand in hand. When we design around the realities that our children live with, we move from reactive intervention to preventative, community-anchored support.
For us in Newham, that shift has not just improved wellbeing scores. It has strengthened trust, belonging and hope.
And in communities facing the greatest challenges, those are the outcomes that matter most.
Rachel Egbulonu is deputy headteacher at Central Park Primary School in East London
