Without counselling in schools, we are left banging our heads against a wall

Counselling in Welsh secondary colleges has reduced students’ distress and enhanced their behaviour. Photograph: Angela Hampton Image Library/Alamy

Young children are prone to hyperbole. So when one particular shouted: “Miiisss, Zak is banging his head against a brick wall”, I reserved judgment till I got there. Unfortunately, Zak was banging his head against the wall. Tough, and repeatedly. He was furious about some thing and needed aid. Acquiring it, however, is never ever easy.

The latest announcements about modifications to GCSEs and the curriculum have reminded me of Zak (not his actual title). We are now told students will acquire numerical grades for GCSEs – 1 to 9 as an alternative of A to G. Likewise, 3 lengthy rewrites of the national curriculum now imply the coalition has stuffed in romantic poetry and laptop coding, and the background curriculum is more in depth. But beyond that, it all feels comparable to what came just before.

Put these changes alongside a shift back to exams more than coursework, and in essence a massive quantity of the previous 3 and a half years of parliamentary debate about education has resulted in minor a lot more than a tidying about the edges of an examination method for 16-yr-olds, most of whom will automatically transfer to university programs anyway.

And do we feel that troubled Zak, with his bloodied head and tear-soaked encounter, will see any variation from these changes? Does this alleged new exam “rigour” offer anything at all to the students who, under the previous method, have been failing? If it does, I can’t see it.

At the moment, virtually 70% of GCSEs are awarded at grade C or over. So even ahead of “extra rigour”, 30% have been awarded at reduced grades. For some pupils, minimal grades will reflect an concern with their cognitive potential, frequently relevant to a particular understanding disability. But for a great chunk of that group, their problem will be behavioural and emotional, for which there is very small support in schools and which – so far – the coalition has failed to tackle.

Zak’s troubles were not extraordinary. He was consistently in contrast with an older “ideal” sibling, and his partnership with his parents had broken down. They wished him to go and live with his uncle. He was angry, bitter and puzzled. Pupils face all sorts of triggers for disordered behaviour. A beloved grandparent dies, dad and mom divorce, bailiffs enter a residence and wrench prized possessions from a parent’s fists. Every situation can carry problematic ruminations that do not disappear from a child’s thoughts just since they enter a classroom. These thoughts fester, and they block understanding.

Although teachers can be a aid, they are not skilled psychologists and cannot realistically educate six hours a day and provide the interest a troubled pupil demands. Estimates propose only 60%-80% of England’s and Scotland’s colleges have counselling obtainable, and exactly where it is accessible, hours are often short and waiting lists long. If a youngster is not physically harming or triggering classroom disruption, there is a respectable likelihood they will never make the record. There are, nonetheless, two glimmers of hope.

In 2008, the Welsh government set a purpose of guaranteeing every single secondary school little one could accessibility counselling as needed. Evaluations of the programme’s initial three many years showed dramatic reductions in children’s psychological distress and teachers reported that behaviour of students enhanced in above 80% of cases. Offered these successes, the Welsh government has committed close to £14.5m to making certain the continuation of the undertaking.

Likewise, in October, the shadow overall health secretary, Andy Burnham, pledged that if Labour had been to win the 2015 election, it would enshrine into the NHS constitution the right of any individual to entry counselling for mental overall health problems. Though underneath-reported by the media, it is an essential phase forward for mental health policy and Labour should not be quiet about it. If something, Tristram Hunt – the new shadow education secretary – should also enter the fray and commit to extending this pledge to kids through a network of school-based expert counsellors based mostly on the Welsh model.

If we are to truly tackle the “challenging 30%” of students who continue failing GCSEs regardless of the previous decade’s interventions, we have to be trustworthy about the difficulty. The problem is not that they had been lacking in romantic poetry or that a G grade was not regarded as meaningful to “employers”. The issue is that a lot of young individuals have difficulties that are not simple to see, or to resolve.

Wales has proven, nevertheless, that they can be helped. Allow us now do the exact same in England, rather than leaving us all banging our heads against a brick wall when faced with college students like Zak.

• Laura McInerney taught in London for six many years and is now a Fulbright scholar

Without counselling in schools, we are left banging our heads against a wall