How we support students' mental health at an online school

In honour of Mental Health Awareness Week, our SEN Services Lead, Aimee Molloy, shares her expert insights on how the right school environment can make all the difference for students who struggle with mental health challenges.

Mirko, Year 8

Mental health challenges among school children have become an increasingly pressing issue in recent years.

As young people navigate the complex world of academic expectations, social pressures, and personal development, many struggle with their emotional and psychological wellbeing. Children and teens can face a wide range of mental health concerns, and these challenges can significantly impact their academic performance, relationships, and overall quality of life.

That’s why positive mental health is one of our most important priorities at King’s InterHigh. Many of our students joined our community to rebuild their wellbeing after a difficult time in mainstream school, and we know that support is crucial in keeping students happy and healthy through critical school periods like the IGCSE and A Level years.

Take Mirko, for example, one of our Year 8 students. Before he joined King’s InterHigh, Mirko’s struggles with anxiety and communication were holding him back from fully embracing school life. According to his mum, Emanuela, our Enhanced Support Services have transformed his life. Today, Mirko is a confident young man who actively participates in class discussions, runs errands independently, and even feels confident enough to speak in front of large groups.

Over our 20 years of online education experience, we’re pleased to have found what really works for young people who’ve experienced struggles with their mental health. Today, these are some of the initiatives at our school that make all the difference to these students and their families.

Building a culture of understanding

All our teachers and staff at King’s InterHigh play a critical role in identifying and addressing mental health concerns in children, as educators are often among the first to notice changes in a student’s behaviour, academic performance, or social interactions.

By fostering a culture of understanding and providing accessible mental health resources, we help students build resilience, cope with challenges, and reach their full potential. Recognising and addressing these challenges early on is not only vital for individual wellbeing but also for nurturing a healthier and more compassionate future generation.

Supporting additional needs

For students with special educational needs in particular, feelings of anxiety and low self-esteem can often be exacerbated by a lack of support in the classroom. Unfortunately, it can be difficult for teachers to ensure every child is getting the help they need in a traditional classroom, where attention must be split between dozens of students.

At King’s InterHigh, we’ve introduced Inclusive Teaching Plans (ITPs) to ensure our students never face this problem. ITPs are absolutely fantastic at providing a true, holistic picture of each student. Unique to Inspired Online Schools, they’re an innovation in supporting students with additional needs that we are delighted to offer all families.

When parents and caregivers enrol their child at King’s InterHigh, they have the opportunity to set up an ITP with us. In our Inclusive Teaching Plans, families can identify:

How we can help your child access their learning materials effectively
How we can support your child to thrive in the classroom environment
How we can guide your child to make progress through assessment

This ITP is then made available to teachers, to ensure every child gets the right support in each class. There is a range of strategies to choose from, and each one is research-informed and supported by our extensive experience of effective learning. These can be updated at any time to inform teachers of any changes that we need to be aware of.

Most importantly, they are focused on ensuring every child can feel fulfilled and successful in online learning. In turn, this helps reduce the stress, worry, and disappointment that can come when students don’t have the help they need to achieve what they’re capable of.

Making learning flexible

We understand that mental health presents uniquely for each student and can change frequently or even dependent on the time of day. In a mainstream school environment, if students don’t attend all their lessons every day, families risk getting into trouble. This can put a huge amount of pressure on children who are working through issues like anxiety and depression. That is why we want to be as flexible and inclusive as possible.

Our lessons take place in a live virtual classroom environment with all the interaction students would get in person, but they are also recorded for viewing at any time. This means that if students need some extra time for any reason or would do better completing the lesson when they feel in the correct headspace, they can do so without falling behind at all. Since students can contact their teachers at any time through our platform, they’re also able to get any further help they need when working through a lesson recording.

We also offer a unique ‘Library Learning’ option for students who need a lower pressure environment in which to rebuild their wellbeing. Library Learning allows students to take time away from live lessons and attend their full timetable through lesson recordings alone. This can often alleviate further worry or anxiety for some students, allowing them to concentrate on the lessons and be confident and comfortable learning.

Meeting communication preferences

In all our lessons, students have the option of choosing how they are comfortable communicating during lessons so they can get the most out of their learning. Each learner has the choice of interacting in class through their microphone, their camera, the public chat function on our virtual classroom platform, a private Q&A which only the teacher sees, and anonymous polls. By offering a wide variety of ways to communicate in a lesson, we can make sure that all students can participate and flourish in a way that’s best for them — even if they have social anxiety.

This may also change from lesson to lesson. If students feel more comfortable in creative media, for example, they may have their camera and microphone on. If they’re working through anxiety around science, they may feel more comfortable communicating through chat in those lessons. Families select engagement preferences on enrolment and can update these at any time, which allows our students to create a bespoke learning environment that is perfectly suited to them.

Working through issues together

Similar to form and tutor groups in mainstream schools, every King’s InterHigh student is placed in a Reflect group with a Reflect tutor when they join us. The key difference is that ‘Reflect’ is one of the four lesson types in our learning model. Reflect tutors act as a personalised guide and mentor for students, supporting their academic journey and wellbeing and ensuring a collaborative learning environment.

Alongside helping students navigate the online platform and acting as a point of contact for parents, they hold weekly meetings with their Reflect group, creating a safe space for students to discuss personal and wider world issues that may impact their wellbeing.

Enhanced Support Services

We were recently delighted to launch our Enhanced Support Services at King’s InterHigh. These optional, add-on courses focus on two areas: wellbeing support and academic support.

Our wellbeing suite of courses include:

Anxiety Management
Social Skills
Wellbeing Mentoring
1:1 Counselling

These have all been developed by subject and inclusion experts. Our Anxiety Management course has also been developed by our qualified online school counsellors. Enhanced Support Services ensure that students like Mirko get the help and guidance they need in key areas to boost their confidence, self-esteem, resilience, and more.

Alongside our weekly drop-in study clubs, our academic support courses can also help with subject-related anxiety and give students a much-needed confidence boost. These courses include: