Find out more about studying MA Leadership of School Mental Health and Wellbeing at Leeds Beckett University? We've gathered all the key details, entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
MA - Master of Arts
Distance Learning Campus
Part Time
Sep 2026
2 Year
Learn how to foster a whole systems approach to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children in schools. Mental health is everybody's responsibility and all schools play a key role in supporting the mental health of their students. This course will enable you to promote positive mental health and wellbeing, help your school adopt strategies which prevent mental illness and improve your support processes for children and young people in schools. As part of your course you’ll: Gain an understanding of the evidence of effective whole school mental health Apply your knowledge in your role as a school leader Learn how to recognise issues such as low self-esteem, anxiety and depression Take early steps to improve the mental health of children in your care Develop sophisticated and original interventions to build children’s resilience and nurture appropriate coping mechanisms Provide an inclusive and enabling environment where every student's mental health can be supported and strengthened This course will adopt a multidisciplinary, whole systems approach to the improvement of mental health and wellbeing. You’ll draw on expertise from school leadership and teaching, organisational change, child therapy, education psychology and social work. And you’ll develop the knowledge, confidence, independence and leadership skills to be able to provide effective mental health support for all your students. By strengthening your self-awareness and reflective skills, you’ll be able to confidently lead on best practice in the support and promotion of student resilience and mental health across your community. Evidence has shown that promoting positive mental health reduces behavioural problems. It also produces an array of positive outcomes, including improved attitudes to learning and better attendance and lower exclusion rates. You’ll develop effective approaches to devising and leading on effective whole school mental health and wellbeing strategies as well as targeted interventions. Your expertise will support pupils, your teaching colleagues and the school's leadership team. You'll have access to expertise within the Carnegie Centre of Excellence for Mental Health in Schools. The centre aims to strengthen the mental health of the next generation by supporting schools to make a positive change at all levels of the UK's education systems. It will focus on improving outcomes and life chances of children and young people.
The Department for Education are drawing on the 'emerging evidence base' around the whole school approach towards mental health. This module explores these models, looks at their strengths and limitations and enables you as a school leader to decide on the model, or adaptation of a model, which is most suitable and helpful to your setting.
Explore how resilience is formed in a student by looking at attachment theory, the effect of cognition and the neurobiology of resilience. You will examine ways other schools have tried to develop the resilience of their students, for example, grit, growth mindset and meditation. You will evaluate the 'trait' vs 'learned skill' of resilience as an argument, audit your own school’s resilience practices and complete an analysis of where your school is in terms of resources, benefits and limitations.
Explore change models, summarising the improvements that you wish to see for your school and apply this to strengthen your school's strategy towards mental health. You will discover models of whole school change and child mental health implementation models. You will also study models of critical professional reflection, deepening your skills as a leader to identify whole school needs and bring about sustainable change.
Develop a context specific research project aligned to mental health, school leadership and the realities of your school.
Investigate how best to work with local agencies by evaluating the prevention, support and crisis procedures your school has for mental health. You will look at different evaluation and quality assurance models, try them out for your school and consider the different statutory frameworks that discuss mental health.
Study different cultures, religions and countries to see how different beliefs affect what your students and parents may think about mental health. You will look at the different cultures in your school and apply this knowledge and consider how you may delicately overcome barriers that beliefs can present.
Develop an historical and sociological understanding of mental health and evaluate how this affects current practice, by applying your knowledge to a case study. You will explore models and the application of critical incident techniques from a wide range of fields including the military, education, nursing, mental health, social work and intercultural studies.
The tuition fee for students entering in 2027/28 is £49.50 per credit. The total number of credit points for this course is 180. The fee you pay may differ based on the number of credit points you study.
