This week the William Henry Smith Foundation is celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week. Because we work with our students every day, around the clock - mental health isn’t just a campaign. It’s the foundation of everything we do. 

As a specialist setting supporting children, we see first-hand how mental health needs change, repeat, and sometimes resurface across development.  Here are seven truths we’ve learned along the way: 

1. Boys Don’t Always Have the Words - But They Always Have Feelings 

From our youngest pupils to our college learners, many boys struggle to verbalise what’s going on inside. This doesn’t mean they don’t feel deeply - often it means the opposite. 

We see emotions communicated through behaviour, withdrawal, humour, anger, or silence. Mental health support for boys starts with adults who are trained to notice, interpret, and respond - not just correct. 

2. Safety Comes Before Progress 

Whether a child is five or twenty-five, safety within relationships is the gateway to learning, independence, and growth. 

Predictable routines, consistent relationships, and trusted adults create the conditions where boys can begin to regulate, reflect, and recover. Without that sense of safety, progress - academic or personal - simply doesn’t exist. 

3. Mental Health Support Can’t Be 9 - 3 

Mental health doesn’t clock off at the end of the school day. 

Our boys benefit from round-the-clock care and specialist teams because emotional needs often surface in the evenings, overnight, or during transitions. Being supported by adults who understand them - at all hours - reduces anxiety and builds trust that lasts. 

4. Behaviour Is Communication, Not a Character Flaw 

Across all ages, we work from the belief that behaviour tells a story. 

Challenging behaviour, avoidance, or risk-taking are often signs of unmet needs, past trauma, or overwhelming feelings. When adults respond with curiosity rather than punishment, boys learn that they are understood - not judged. 

5. Growing Up Doesn’t Mean Growing Out of Support 

Mental health needs don’t magically disappear at 18. 

Our young adults often face fresh challenges: identity, independence, relationships, employment, and managing mental health without constant adult direction. Supporting boys up to 25 recognises that development is individual - and that ongoing guidance can be life-changing. 

6. Strong Relationships Are the Real Intervention 

Therapies, strategies, and plans matter - but relationships are what make them work. 

Consistent, emotionally available adults help boys learn how to trust, regulate emotions, and build resilience. Many of our boys measure progress not in qualifications, but in confidence, self-belief, and the ability to ask for help. 

7. Mental Health Is Everyone’s Responsibility 

Children’s Mental Health Week reminds us that mental health isn’t the job of one team or one professional. 

Teachers, care staff, therapists, support workers, and leaders all play a role. When everyone shares responsibility, boys experience a joined-up, compassionate approach - one that tells them they matter. 

This Week And Every Week 

Children’s Mental Health Week gives us language and visibility. But our commitment goes beyond a theme or a timetable. 

By offering specialist education, care, and therapeutic support day and night - we stand alongside our boys as they grow from children into young men, helping them build the emotional skills they’ll carry for life.

Follow our social media channels this week to see some of the activities happening across the school and sixth form around this theme such as Mindful Monday's, Wellbeing Wednesdays and what a 'growth mindset' is and how it helps with our mental health.