The UK's first Masters for School & College Leaders of Mental Health

Developing a cadre of school leaders to transform mental health across our education system.

This is a DfE approved course: you can use the 2022 grant (round 2) to part-fund this course. As this programme starts in September 2022, schools and colleges should apply in the second round of grant funding. The second round of DfE School Mental Health Lead training grants will open in spring 2022. Grants from round one cannot be used for training courses in September 2022. For more information visit Gov.uk.

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Minds Ahead have designed and are delivering the UK’s first Masters in School Leadership of Mental Health and Wellbeing to the 2nd cohort of school and college leaders. This unique course is for those leading mental health across their school, college or group of schools.

The Masters in School Leadership of Mental Health and Wellbeing is part of Minds Ahead’s ongoing partnership with the Carnegie Faculty of Education at Leeds Beckett University.

The first cohort started in October 2018 and will ensure that school colleagues who are taking on the challenging new role of mental health in schools lead are provided with expert support, guidance and leadership development.

This is resulting in a cadre of Master’s level accredited school leaders, who are already playing a role in transforming mental health within our schools.

Based on academic year 2019/20 evaluations

The Masters is delivered using an online learning approach and covers topics such as:

Leading Mental Health across the school
Leading student resilience across the school
Evaluating global perspectives on mental health in schools
Critical case review
Working with local mental health support agencies
Major independent study

The first and second cohort had school leaders from primary, secondary, special and FE settings. Most of the cohorts came from UK state schools, but there are also several attending from international schools. This innovative, but much needed new leadership development programme is part of Minds Ahead’s commitment to ensuring that our schools become world leaders in mental health. To meet the team and see video FAQ’s please click here.

The next cohort starts on September 20th 2021. To apply for this programme, see the entry requirements and download the course specification, please click here.

“The MA is a course I would recommend to anyone interested in promoting and facilitating a more proactive approach to mental wellness in school. The opportunity to learn and consider different perspectives and how to apply these to our school to facilitate change is refreshing as is the online discussions with other students on the course.”

Priya Mitchell, School Counsellor and Designated Lead, The British School Al Khubairat

“”The learning and development gained from the Masters has given me the confidence, as a school leader, to try new things to positively enhance my school….
We are now designing a bespoke curriculum, underpinned by learning from the masters course incorporating resilience, neuroplasticity and cognition theory to support child and learning development across our school. It is genuinely helping to transform our whole school approach”

Kerry Hill, Headteacher, Eyres Monsell Primary

The UK's first Masters for School & College Leaders of Mental Health

Mental health qualifications

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