School of Education

Supporting you to create mentally healthy classrooms

The University of Glasgow and Place2Be Partnership

Place2Be and the School of Education in the University of Glasgow have launched a strategic partnership to ensure that future generations of teachers feel better equipped with skills and understanding of children’s mental health, ensuring they are effective in managing the mental health challenges they will face in their classrooms.

A clinician from Place2Be is embedded in the School of Education, supporting student teachers’ development of knowledge, understanding and skills that can be applied in the classroom to identify and support child and adolescent mental health, wellbeing and resilience.

Who are Place2Be?

Place2Be provides safe and creative spaces in schools for children aged 4 and up to talk about their emotions and any difficulties they are facing, so mental health problems don’t grow with them.

Place2Be has been working in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Scotland since 2018. They now support one third of student teachers in Scotland directly, and deliver their foundation level mental health training to most of the universities in Scotland delivering ITE.

Place2Be works in partnership with ITE institutions to build the capacity of the next generation of teachers to create mentally healthy classrooms: our embedded clinician supports you to learn, reflect and gain confidence in supporting children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing – and your own.

Meet your Place2Be Clinical Consultant

“My name is Froydis Engsvik, I’m from Norway and worked as a Place2be school counsellor across primary and secondary in London for 10 years. As the School of Education Clinical Consultant, I am passionate about seeing student teachers develop into reflective school leaders that are emotionally intelligent, equipped with a robust understanding of children's mental health, enabling them to lead mentally healthy classrooms.”

How do student teachers benefit from this partnership?

Place2Think

All student teachers in the School of Education can engage with the Place2Be Consultant via Place2Think: one-to-one and group sessions providing you with a unique therapeutic and educational confidential space.

In Place2Think you can reflect on your own teaching practice, your pupil’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as your own wellbeing. This allows you to develop your skills and emotional intelligence, preparing you for a career in the classroom.

We offer one-to-one and group sessions. This enables you to:

• reflect on your own growing professional identity and develop a greater sense of agency
• understand the impact of your new profession on your own mental health and wellbeing
• reflect and process how your own experiences may impact a given situation and learn how to support children, young people, and yourself
• develop emotional intelligence which enables you to regulate emotions better and increase resilience
• learn how to facilitate mentally healthy classrooms where teacher and pupils flourish and learn

Mental Health Champions – Foundation Programme

All University of Glasgow student teachers have access to Place2Be’s online foundation level training, which will help you to improve your knowledge, understanding and confidence of children’s mental health. The five-week programme has no fixed timings and can be completed in 15-minute sections. Completion of the programme can also be added to their HEAR (Higher Education Attainment record).

In-person learning opportunities

Your Place2Be clinician will deliver workshops, lectures, and seminars where student teachers can gain a stronger theoretical understanding of aspects of child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing.

Contact Froydis

Phone: 07970 427938

Email: froydis.engsvik@place2be.org.uk