Promoting belonging through PSHE education
The theme for this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is ‘This is My Place’, encapsulating the need all of us have to know our place and really feel part of our environment.
As ever, PSHE education has a vital role to play in this — through supporting children and young people to build meaningful relationships and experience a sense of inclusion and belonging at school and in their wider communities (factors that are critical to good mental health [1]).
Indeed, it is now well-established that evidence-based universal school programmes that support children and young people to learn how to manage their emotions and build healthy relationships, such as those delivered through PSHE education, can significantly improve the quality of students’ relationships and increase their sense of connection, inclusion and belonging [2].
The same programmes have also been shown to have the potential to significantly reduce bullying, violence and aggressive behaviour [2].
Our lesson packs on Friendship and bullying, Belonging and community and Learning and playing together all help to promote connection, inclusion and belonging, and support children and young people to learn socio-emotional skills that can support them to build healthy relationships.
And our lessons on Climate change can support children and young people to discover meaningful ways to feel more connected to nature and look after the environment as part of a community.
Nature, awe and prosocial behaviourSpending time outside and in natural environments, such as parks, can induce awe [3] — an emotion that can promote prosocial (i.e., kind and caring) behaviour — and support mental health [4], [5], [6]. As a result, researchers have suggested that supporting children and young people to spend time outside and experience awe (i.e., an outwardly directed sense of amazement) could be an innovative way to help create happier and more inclusive school communities [4], [5], [7]. |
PSHE education lessons that focus specifically on mental health, such as those included in Foundations for Wellbeing and Wellbeing for Life, provide the ideal framework for children and young people to learn knowledge, skills and attitudes that can help them to empathise, sustain attention and manage their emotions.
In their day-to-day lives, this can help children and young people to establish and maintain friendships, interact thoughtfully and make a positive contribution to their school communities [8].
So, take the opportunity this Children’s Mental Health Week to reflect on how you can use PSHE education to support the children and young people in your school to build meaningful relationships and experience a sense of connection, inclusion and belonging — so they can confidently say of their school ‘This is My Place’.
References
[1] World Health Organization. (2023). How school systems can improve mental health and wellbeing: topic brief: mental health. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240064751
[2] Cipriano, C., Strambler, M. J., Naples, L. H., Ha, C., Kirk, M., Wood, M., Sehgal, K., Zieher, A. K., Eveleigh, A., McCarthy, M., Funaro, M., Ponnock, A., Chow, J. C., & Durlak, J. (2023). The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions. Child Development, 94(5), 1181–1204.
[3] Lopes, S., Lima, M., & Silva, K. (2020). Nature can get it out of your mind: The rumination-reducing effects of contact with nature and the mediating role of awe and mood. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 71, 101489.
[4] Ferguson, M., Teyhan, A., Lovell, R., Dodd, H., Wheeler, B., & McEachan, R. (2025). The association between park visits, outdoor play and child social-emotional competency in a multi-ethnic, urban cohort. Wellbeing, Space & Society, 9, Article 100293.
[5] Stamkou, E., Brummelman, E., Dunham, R., Nikolic, M., & Keltner, D. (2023). Awe sparks prosociality in children. Psychological Science, 34(4), 455–467.
[6] Monroy, M., & Keltner, D. (2022). Awe as a pathway to mental and physical health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(2), 309–320.
[7] Dorjee, D. (2025). Making sense of mental health and wellbeing in primary schools: A practical neuroscience-based guide. London: Routledge.
[8] Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. (2025). The Shaping Us Framework. Retrieved from https://centreforearlychildhood.org/our-work/research/the-shaping-us-framework/