Can you teach children “grit”? Ministers want to ensure that mental resilience is taught in schools to counter what they describe as a “doom loop” of poor mental health which drives record school absences and higher health spending longer into the future.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson plan to merge attendance and behaviour hubs in schools as part of a drive to “tackle anxiety and low mood” in the classroom. The pair say their “evidence-based intervention” will “not only halt the spiral towards crisis but cultivate much-needed grit amongst the next generation, essential for academic success and life beyond school, with all its ups and downs”.

On one level, trying to teach children resilience makes a lot of sense. Life is difficult and there is a popular societal trend towards pathologising the troubles we all encounter such as grief, or suggesting that mental health problems automatically mean you cannot live........

© iNews