The Educator Magazine U.K. Sept-Dec 2026 issue - Magazine - Page 54
Teaching
children to fish:
Following a shock report, how the childhood
mental health crisis could be prevented
Bede Brosnahan, operations director at Gazing Performance
A shocking report from June showed that
the number of children referred to mental
health services in England rose by 10% in
a year to more than one million. That’s one
child in every ten.
Anxiety was listed as the most common
reason, and waiting up to two years for help
is not unusual, meaning the problems aren’t
going away anytime soon.
When children spend six or more of their
waking hours at school, this is as much a
problem for our education system as our
health system.
Instead of weaving a net to catch those that
need it, we should be equipping every child
with the necessary mental resilience to help
them better handle stress, pressure, and
uncertainty, which together are creating an
anxious generation.
Integrated mindset development
Mindset development is one way of
building mental resilience, and the good
news is that it is a skill that can be learned
and practiced by anyone.
While most schools are already trying hard
to incorporate this, the problem is that too
many of them treat mindset as a problem to fix, or as a separate subject to be
taught rather than a critical, integral part of
everything a school does.
Shifting mindset from red to blue
Mindset development is not about becoming super-human. It’s about giving you the
tools to help you better respond to stressful
situations.
The Red to Blue method is a mindset
technique that helps you control how you
react to high-pressure situations, allowing
you to focus, make better decisions, and
regain control of your emotions.
It involves recognising the state you're
in under pressure. For example, when
walking into an exam, having a difficult
conversation, or doing a performance in
front of others, your thoughts race, your
body tightens and decisions are impaired.
We call that your 'red head'. It's normal, and
everyone experiences it.
The Red to Blue method teaches you to shift
out of it. Not by ignoring the pressure, but
by learning to step back and think about
what you can actually control right now. In
your 'blue head', you think clearly, feel in
control, and perform at your best.
It may sound simple, and it is. That’s the
point. Emotional intelligence in one
classroom can vary so widely that whatever
solutions are being proposed need to be
straightforward and not filled with
complicated jargon. This way, they can be
understood and implemented by those of
varying ages and stages of development.
A common language
Children as young as toddlers have shown
an understanding of ‘red head’, meaning
they’re able to identify when they’re feeling
overwhelmed or angry. As those children
get older, more skills can be added to their
emotional toolkit, and they can practice
understanding and managing their ‘red
head’ state.
It also helps them communicate their
feelings to each other and to adults.
A child may not be able to articulate that
they feel frustrated or stressed, but they
can tell an adult that they’re in ‘red head’.
In turn, adults can use this language to help
children understand the emotions of others
around them in a way that’s clear, familiar,
and consistent.
If young people can better self-regulate
then their engagement, ability to focus, and
ability to learn well are likely to increase.
Benefits to educators
In our classrooms, it’s not just students who
are becoming overwhelmed; 2025 stats
suggest that teachers feel stressed at work
most of the time. Almost two thirds believe
that stress affects them more than 60% of
the time.
Educators who develop a common
language with the students in their care can
better recognise those who need support,
and they can empathise and communicate
much more effectively.
This is hugely significant for teachers
who struggle to manage their classroom,
relate to their students, and balance the
emotional sides of learning with the
academic.
Changing the way we perceive
pressure
It’s important to remember that pressure
isn't always bad, especially if it comes
from having ambitious goals or a desire
to do better. Pressure is just as capable of
pushing you forwards as it is of pushing you
back, but it’s much more likely to push you
forward when you are equipped with tools
and a framework to handle it properly.
Harnessing that pressure and using it as a
driver to improve results for students inside
the classroom, and for teachers when it
comes to especially stressful situations like
If young people can build mental strength
during their school years, they'll enter
adulthood with a learned skill that will help
them in stressful situations throughout their
life.
To put it another way, instead of giving
them a fish, which will only feed them that
day, we should be teaching them how to
fish, which will feed them for life.
