Understanding and Reducing Anxiety in the Primary School: Theory and Practice for Building a Compassionate Culture for All Educators and Children

Everyone working in education, and beyond, is fully aware of the current mental health crisis for pupils. Understanding and Reducing Anxiety in the Primary School combines the expert knowledge of a specialist in formative assessment, a child and adolescent psychotherapist and an outstanding headteacher to address how we may tackle this issue and improve the wellbeing of children in our schools. Formative assessment, one of the key techniques explored within this book, has explicit links with reducing anxiety: raising children’s belief in their ability to achieve and giving them clear frameworks of learning intentions and success criteria as well as in-the-moment feedback so that they are reassured and able to voice any worries while they are working.

Written in a practical and accessible manner, the authors unpack the psychology behind issues related to students’ mental health and provide illustrative, relatable anecdotes and helpful strategies to support a positive, anxiety-free learning environment.

The book is divided into four distinct sections:

• Why is everyone so anxious and what can we do about it?
• Understanding and dealing with extreme behaviour
• Supporting the learning to reduce anxiety
• Creating a containing and compassionate school

This is a must read for anyone working in a primary school. Readers will benefit from learning strategies to reduce the anxiety of the children they work with and to support the wellbeing of the wider educational community.

Shirley Clarke holds a wealth of experience in educational research, including 10 years at the Institute of Education, UCL, and from 23 years of action research teams across the world. She is a multi-bestselling author, including Outstanding Formative Assessment and Visible Learning Feedback co-authored with John Hattie

Angela Evans is a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist with extensive experience of working with children, young people and families, individually and with the wider system around them. She worked for 20 years for the National Health Service (NHS) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), specialising in Looked After Children.

Kate Moss, with a therapy background, is an experienced headteacher and supervisor for education professionals. She also acts as Facilitator for the National Professional Qualifications for Leadership (Behaviour and Culture) (NPQLBC) and Church of England Foundation For Educational Leadership (CEFEL) in addition to Expert Coaching for National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL) CEFEL.