As schools prepare for children and young people to return in September, supporting and prioritising mental health and wellbeing will be more important than ever.

A new toolkit, Mental health and wellbeing in primary schools – Preparing for recovery, empowers schools to support and prioritise pupils’ wellbeing as they adjust to the return to school, as well as putting in place sustainable changes for the longer term, based on the local context and staff capacity.

This tool has been developed by the Schools’ Wellbeing Partnership in consultation with the Department for Education, to help primary schools to work through the key considerations to support mental health and wellbeing as all pupils begin to return to school full time.

The tool is structured around key principles that help embed wellbeing holistically across school settings, including leadership, environment and culture, curriculum, student voice, staff development and identifying need.

It includes practice examples, signposting to training for schools and teachers and resources for further support to help schools plan and prepare for pupils to return and rebuild the school community.

The National Autistic Society: Back to school guides

The National Autistic Society has produced two resources for the return to school.

Back to school – a guide for parents Preparing your child for the return to school: which includes a table that lists the Government’s recommended protective measures to reduce risks of spreading Covid-19, together with the potential positives and negatives, from an autistic child’s point of view and questions that parents might ask schools.

Back to school – a guide for teachers preparing for an autistic pupil’s return to school: this is similar to the parents’ guide, but includes suggestions for reasonable adjustments that schools could make to overcome barriers to an autistic pupil’s inclusion in school.