Activities & Events
ESRC Seminar Series 2008/9: The school as a location for the promotion and support of mental health
Concerns over the poor mental health and well being of many children and young people in Scotland have prompted a proliferation of responses in terms of policy (Scottish Executive 2001; DES 2004), many of which emphasise that mental health is ‘everybody’s business’. The situation raises important questions about relationships between stakeholder groups, and the different and sometimes contradictory understandings of childhood, parenthood and community between different professional groups working on children’s behalf.
In this seminar series we intend to draw on new research to explore how this new anxiety over the mental health of children is enacted in the school setting, and what the consequences are for children, young people and their families. Schools are traditionally settings where pupils are the passive recipients of things which are ‘done to’ them, most key decisions being made on their behalf by school staff. What, then, are the implications for children and their families when schools begin to claim joint ownership of something as personal and individualised as mental health?
This series of seminars will draw together academics, policy makers and practitioners from a range of backgrounds including health, education, and social policy. Speakers will include established members of the research community, and policy makers of national significance in both the statutory and voluntary sectors.
This seminar series is organised by the Rowan Group at the University of Aberdeen in collaboration with the Universities of Teesside and Southampton.
Seminar 1
The first seminar The School in its Community took place on 4th April 2008 at the University of Teesside
- For programme of the first seminar click here (Word)
- Report on Seminar 1
- Presentations (Powerpoint slides)
Seminar 2
The second seminar In school approaches to supporting mental health and well-being took place at the University of Southampton on 27th June 2008
- Final programme of the 2nd Seminar click here (Word)
- Report on Seminar 2
- Presentations
Seminar 3
Mental health services in school: implications for children’s rights took place at the University of Aberdeen on Thursday 6th November.
- Final programme for the 3rd seminar (Word)
- Report on Seminar 3
- Presentations
- Judi Kidger (PowerPoint)
- Jenny Spratt & Kate Philip (PowerPoint)
- Vicki Coppock (PowerPoint)
- Carol Craig (Synopsis) (Word)
Seminar 4
The final seminar in the series, Mental health services in school: implications for relations with parents took place in Teesside on 10th March 2009.
- Programme for seminar 4 (Word)
- Report on seminar 4 (Word)
- Presentations
- Paternite (Powerpoint)
- Stephenson (Powerpoint)
- Shucksmith (Powerpoint)
Previous Events
Chess in the Schools and Communities Conference (CISCCON)
ESRC Seminar Series: Youth Mentoring: building evidence, building theory
The seminar series will take place over eighteen months and will comprise of four day seminars and a two-day symposium. Academics from sociology, education, career guidance, social policy, youth studies and child and family studies will be invited to work collaboratively with research users to examine the concept of mentoring as it has been developed in the UK and to take a critical approach to theorising the concept.
- Click here for background information on the seminar series
- Click here for Programme for Seminar 1 and full report of the York seminar
Seminar 2 – Mentoring and Social Capital.
This seminar took place at Manchester Metropolitan University on 22nd November 2006. The excellent presentations provoked considerable debate and discussion.
Seminar 3 - Youth Mentoring: Families and Relationships
The next seminarwas planned in collaboration with the Centre for Families and Relationships and took place on Wednesday 7th March at the University of Edinburgh. The focus of this seminar was be Youth Mentoring, Families and Relationships.
Presentations
- Young People and the Benefits and Costs of Mentoring for their Networks of Social Support (Powerpoint)
Dr. Pat Dolan, Child and Family Research Centre National University of Ireland, Galway - Obligatory friendships and surrogate kin: some questions for mentoring (Powerpoint)
Lynn Jamieson Centre for Research on Families and Relationships - Circumstantial and conditional truths. Families and the mentoring relationship(Powerpoint)
Janet Shucksmith Professor in Public Health University of Teesside
For booking a place at this seminar please click http://www.crfr.ac.uk//events/youthmentorbook.html
Seminar 4 - Youth Mentoring and Resilience.
This seminar will take place on May 17th at the University of Aberdeen.
Presentations
- Mentoring Today’s Youth: from research to practice
Jean Rhodes, University of Massachusetts - Promoting Educational Resilience: evidence from two British Birth Cohorts
Ingrid Schoon, City University - Developing Personal resilience and resources to cope with adversity and challenge
James Cathcart, Prince’s Trust
See also the Scottish Mentoring Network web site