No images? Click here Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools**Please note that the opportunities and events mentioned below in items 3 to 6 are only for SHINE schools, who are registered members of the SHINE network. We do not usually post these updates on our website but realise that many teachers are unable to access their usual e-mail accounts at the moment. If your school is not a member but would like to join the Network – please complete the sign-up sheet on the front page of our website and return to Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk and we will be delighted to welcome your school to SHINE.** SHINE update April 2020Dear All, It seems more relevant than ever to start by saying that I hope this update finds you well! I hope that you, your families and school communities are safe during these difficult times. The SHINE team is working away, albeit remotely, and is keen to continue supporting schools with wellbeing at this time when it matters most. I am pleased to bring you the latest update for April, which includes: 1. COVID-19 advice sheets for schools 1. COVID-19 SHINE mental health and wellbeing advice sheets for schoolsWe have put together three simple mental health advice sheets for schools to support pupils, school staff and parents/carers and families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These may be useful to include in a mail-out or to post in a health and wellbeing hub on Glow/Microsoft Teams/Google Classroom so that young people and staff can access them as required. You will find them on our website at https://shine.sphsu.gla.ac.uk/covid-19/ 2. How can we help you?A group of health researchers at the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit where SHINE is based are currently looking at further ways to support schools through the COVID-19 crisis. We are working on a short-self assessment quiz to help young people assess their wellbeing with advice available according to their answers and signposting. Longer term, we are discussing options to feed the data gathered back to schools and facilitate a peer-led support approach. The quiz will involve approximately ten health-related statements about sleep, physical activity, loneliness, mood, ability to concentrate/function and 2 or 3 practical things such as having a suitable place to study/being able to access school resources confidently. If there are particular questions that you would like us to include, please get in touch. Also, if there are other resources, which you think SHINE could help you with, please contact Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk and we will be delighted to help. 3. Networking in the time of COVID-19 and the annual SHINE conference 2020As a network, we have now grown to 171 school members. We are delighted to have so many members in SHINE and were disappointed to have to postpone the annual conference to September, as for us, and hopefully you too, this is the highlight of the year when we can all get together with like-minded people to discuss approaches to wellbeing across Scotland. We still aim to go ahead with the conference, COVID-19 permitting, on Thursday 3rd September, 2020 at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and will issue the invitations after the Easter holiday break. We are looking into the possibility of delivering a virtual conference, should a gathering still not be possible. While we cannot meet in person at the moment, I wanted to let you know that @ScotlandShine follows the Twitter handles of most school members, Local Authorities and Regional Improvement Collaboratives. If we are not following you yet, please give us a wave so that we can follow you. Over the coming months, my intention is to highlight some of the fantastic practice that is happening across the network with health and wellbeing via Twitter so that other schools can share and benefit from this. Equally, please share these updates with your school’s wellbeing team or wider staff, so that resources and networking can be shared across communities. If you are accessing this via the website rather than your usual e-mail registered with SHINE, please contact Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk to provide a temporary COVID email contact address. 4. An opportunity to be involved with the new Sleep, Circadian Rhythms and Mental Health in Schools (SCRAMS) projectThe SCRAMS project is led by Professor Daniel Smith and has recently been awarded funding from the MRC Engagement Awards. Dr Jo Inchley is a Co-Investigator and also leads the SHINE team. We would like to invite SHINE schools to be involved in this exciting project which is described below: Project Overview: Adolescence is a critical developmental period during which getting enough high-quality sleep becomes a major challenge. Poor sleep represents an important (but under-researched) risk factor for mental ill-health in young people. The sleep, circadian rhythms and mental health in schools (SCRAMS) consortium will investigate the complex relationships between sleep, light exposure and mental wellbeing in school-aged children, with a view to developing new interventions for the future. Objectives: - To deliver a comprehensive programme of public engagement focused on sleep and mental health in schools, in collaboration with the charity Sleep Scotland. -- - Delivery of a series of feasibility studies that will include: a) testing a novel wearable sensor for light in adolescents; b) collecting objective activity/sleep data and light exposure data during the winter and summer months and at different latitudes; c) feasibility work on sleep and cognitive functioning in adolescent pupils; and d) assessing facilitators and barriers to the collection of biological samples in schoolchildren. - Three SCRAMS collaboration meetings over the course of the year, including key stakeholders and project partners, to grow the consortium and coordinate our research and public engagement activities. We will be doing some virtual engagement activities in the Summer term and then starting the feasibility studies in the Autumn term. If your school would like to be involved, please contact the Project Manager of SCRAMS Dr Judith Brown Judith.Brown@glasgow.ac.uk (Judith will be familiar to many of you as the project manager of SHINE 😊) 5. The third webinar in the SHINE series: “Attachment” – Professor Helen MinnisWe are delighted to announce that the guest for our third webinar in the series will be Professor Helen Minnis. Professor Minnis is a professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Mental Health and Wellbeing) at the University of Glasgow, with a particular research focus on attachment disorder and interventions for maltreated young children in foster care. The webinar will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 6th May, 2020 at 3pm. Professor Minnis will deliver a presentation and then there will be an opportunity to interact directly with our guest via the chat facility. We hope that you will be able to join us and I will be in touch with SHINE members with further details nearer the time. 6. The Pupil On-line Mental Health Survey updateAs you know from previous updates, before the world was turned upside down by COVID-19, we were in the process of trialling the SHINE Pupil On-line Mental Health Survey, with the intention of wider roll out to all members in the Summer term. Amazingly, one of our trial schools managed to collect data from 90 pupils in the week that the schools closed. This means that we will be able to continue working on this to perfect the reporting formats, so that the survey will be ready for all SHINE members when you do finally return to school. Huge thanks to that school – you know who you are – and to the other trial schools, who were all ready to do likewise if the schools hadn’t closed. The possibility of continuing with the roll-out has been suggested as it is an on-line survey. However, this would not be feasible, given that the survey was designed for delivery in school with supervision by school staff. We wanted to reassure you in the meantime that work is continuing to deliver this to you once schools are back in session. 7. Congratulations and Happy Easter!We have all been clapping for the NHS and the phenomenal job they are currently doing - I would like to recognize here the amazing job that all teachers and schools are doing to keep their communities connected in these extremely challenging times. I know many of you will still be continuing to support the keyworkers’ and vulnerable children throughout the Easter holiday period and are going above and beyond to support young people across Scotland. The SHINE team wishes you well, hopes you and your families are safe and that you can enjoy Easter together when the time comes. All the best, Dawn Haughton |