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The International School Mental Health Readiness Checklist

Most schools have more mental health provision than they think, and less coherence than they hope. This checklist shows a leadership team where the gaps actually are, in about twenty minutes.

Thirty questions across six areas, written for international schools where staff and families arrive from different systems and turnover is high.

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1. Shared language

Whether adults and students in your school describe distress in the same words, and whether that language survives a change of staff.

  • Can students name what they are feeling beyond stressed and fine
  • Do staff, parents and students use the same terms for the same experiences
  • Is that vocabulary taught, or picked up by chance

2. Staff confidence

Whether the adult a student happens to tell knows what to do in the first five minutes.

  • Would every adult respond the same way to the same disclosure
  • Do staff know the limits of their role and who to hand over to
  • Is there training for support staff, not only teaching staff

3. Referral pathways

Whether the route from a worrying conversation to appropriate support is written down and known.

  • Is the pathway documented and available to every member of staff
  • Is there a named person for out-of-hours and holiday concerns
  • Does the school know its local external services, in the local language

4. Parent partnership

Whether families get the same message as their children, at roughly the same time.

  • Are parents offered anything beyond an annual information evening
  • Do parents know what the school teaches students about mental health
  • Is there a route for a parent to raise a concern early, before crisis

5. Student voice

Whether provision is designed with young people or delivered at them.

  • Have students been asked what they would actually use
  • Do students know who to go to, by name
  • Is peer support recognised and supported rather than left informal

6. Review

Whether the school can tell if any of this is working.

  • Is there a wellbeing lead with time protected for the role
  • Is provision reviewed at least annually against evidence
  • Does the school track help-seeking, not only incidents

Send me the readiness checklist

A printable 30-point checklist with a simple scoring sheet for your leadership team. Free, no newsletter subscription required.

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Common questions

What is in the readiness checklist?
Thirty questions across six areas: shared language, staff confidence, referral pathways, parent partnership, student voice and review. Each one is answerable yes, partly or no, so a leadership team can score the school in about twenty minutes.
Who should complete it?
It works best when a small group completes it separately - a principal or head of school, a counsellor, a pastoral or homeroom lead and one classroom teacher - and then compares answers. The disagreements are usually the most useful part.
Is this suitable for international schools?
Yes. It was written for international schools, where staff and families arrive from different systems with different mental health vocabulary, and where turnover means provision has to survive people leaving.

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