Education Today Education Today Magazine
Strong social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) is the most significant factor in children leading happy, fulfilled, and independent lives. It underpins learning, relationships, aspiration, and long-term wellbeing.
But in recent years, children’s SEMH needs have risen sharply – accelerated by the pandemic, social pressures, and growing inequality. SEMH is now the second most common primary SEND need in England. In classrooms across the country, educators are seeing more children struggling with emotional regulation, withdrawn or anxious, or displaying challenging behaviour. These behaviours are not the problem; they are signals – signs of unmet emotional needs.
Recognising the link between behaviour and mental health is essential to delivering early, compassionate and effective support. Yet, for many schools, managing behaviours associated with SEMH is particularly challenging and sadly results in high levels of suspensions and exclusions increasing children vulnerability long term if their needs aren’t identified and supported early.
The need behind the behaviour
Children with SEMH difficulties may find it hard to form friendships, understand social cues and rules, manage conflict, or engage positively in group learning. Emotionally, they may have difficulty expressing or regulating strong feelings, or show signs of trauma, anxiety, or low mood. Some withdraw or mask their distress completely, often stemming from attachment difficulties, early childhood adversity or low self-esteem.
These emotional and behavioural signs often intersect with neurodiverse conditions such as ADHD or ASC, as well as with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs include ongoing sources of stress or trauma – such as abuse, neglect, domestic violence, parental separation, or growing up in households affected by mental illness, substance misuse, or incarceration. Factors like being in care, poverty, or exposure to community violence further compound adversity.
This kind of toxic stress can disrupt brain development and impair the ability to regulate emotions and behaviour – affecting learning, relationships, and long-term mental and physical health.
But just as adversity can disrupt development, positive childhood experiences (PCEs) – safety, connection, trust and belonging – can buffer against it. That’s why schools must prioritise relational practice: building trusting relationships with children and families and creating emotionally safe environments where every child feels seen and supported.
Spotting the signs
The signs of SEMH needs are not always immediately obvious or apparent, they’re often seen in subtle patterns: changes in mood, increased anxiety, disengagement, difficulties with friendships or reacting impulsively to transitions and setbacks. Observation is crucial. Through everyday interactions – how a child plays, responds to learning and expectations, copes with transitions or relates to others – staff can begin to understand their emotional world and begin timely conversations with other school staff, family and the child themselves.
Crucially, SEMH is not just about internal factors – it’s shaped by the child’s wider experience. SEMH assessment may pick up unidentified SEN, disability, or mental health problems; however, to truly understand a child’s situation assessments should consider a wider scope – family dynamics, past trauma, neurodiversity, cultural background, and socio-economic context all play a part.
Whole-school awareness, targeted action
Effective SEMH provision starts with whole-school awareness. When all staff – from SLT to lunchtime supervisors – understand the importance of emotional wellbeing, behaviour is no longer seen in isolation but in context.
Once a child’s needs are recognised, schools can implement a graduated response – starting with universal, inclusive approaches and escalating to more targeted support where needed. Effective intervention involves collaboration across professionals including SENCOs, pastoral teams, behaviour specialists, and external agencies to ensure a joined-up approach.
These strategies work best when built around:
- Strong adult-child relationships – grounded in empathy, trust and consistency.
- Safe learning environments – with space for regulation and emotional safety.
- Structured interventions – such as one-to-one sessions, small group work, and social-emotional skills groups.
- SEL embedded in the curriculum – to normalise social and emotional literacy for all.
- Access to calm zones – and emotional check-ins.
- Pupil voice – ensuring they are active participants in decisions about their support and that their experience is understood and their perception valued.
- Mentoring and counselling – to provide regular, tailored emotional support.
- Parent partnerships – to ensure consistency and support between home and school.
- Personalised provision and regulation plans – to help children understand their own emotions and build confidence.
- Ongoing CPD – to build staff confidence, skills and best practices.
Supporting SEMH with Hamish & Milo
Our programme provides a structured, relationship-based approach to SEMH support in primary schools. Rooted in evidence and developed by education and mental health professionals, it equips schools with the tools to embed emotional literacy, deliver targeted interventions and nurture pupil wellbeing.
- A curriculum that explicitly teaches social and emotional literacy, helping children understand, express, and manage their feelings and develop essential social and emotional competencies.
- Small group interventions that create a sense of belonging and connection, allowing children to develop friendships and learn from each other in a safe, nurturing, inclusive setting.
Targeted emotional themes address key areas:
- Conflict resolution
- Diversity, inclusion, and anti-bullying
- Resilience and anxiety
- Sadness and low mood
- Change and transition
- Grief, loss and bereavement
- Self-esteem, self-worth, and confidence
- Peer relationships and friendships
- Regulation of strong emotions, such as anger and frustration
Research on the effectiveness of the Hamish & Milo Programme finds statistically significant improvements in pupils’ social and emotional competencies and positive outcomes observed across the whole school community including a reduction in school exclusions and behavioural escalations; and improved relationships, learning engagement and wellbeing.
We believe every child deserves the chance to thrive – emotionally, socially and academically. When schools embed relationship-based practice and equip children with emotional skills to navigate life’s challenges, they don’t just manage behaviour – they transform lives.
