Welcome to our September 2025 Newsletter: A new look for a new academic year!
Hello and welcome to our brand new look for the new academic year, we are so excited to be sharing lots of news with you all this month and what a month it’s been! Let’s hit the ground running and dive right in with what’s new for AMHIE this academic year:
- AMHIE on Air: Our new podcast delves into the most recent and influential happenings within the education sector, how this effects you and how you might combat barriers and find solutions. Once a half term, we’ll get our members, professionals and experts behind the mic for a round table chat. For more information visit: https://amhie.com/our-new-podcast-amhie-on-air/
- AMHIE Membership: Our membership offer to schools has changed to reflect your needs, we now include a variety of compliance-based training helping you and the team to conform to the most recent sector guidance and policy from the DfE. For more information on our offer visit: https://amhie.com/our-offer/membership/
- AMHIE Training: We have expanded our training offer to include even more compliance and policy based options for you and your team visit: https://community.amhie.com/training/
Getting involved:
We are saddened to see the departure of Symon Dewsbury from our National Steering group; Symon has been an avid supporter of AMHIE for several years now, helping us to develop and steer the picture to best represent schools. But it’s not all sad news – Congratulations on your new posting Symon, we wish you every success for the future. This does now mean that we are looking for more National Steering Group members, could you commit to 3 meetings a year and help us develop AMHIE? Visit our page to find out about our Steering Group and how they help: https://amhie.com/our-story/national-steering-group/
Coming in October:
2nd October 2025 – CPD modules Implementing a Mental Health Strategy and Action Planning
https://community.amhie.com/training/mental-health-lead-cpd-sessions/
13th October – Assistant Mental Health Lead training
https://community.amhie.com/assistant-mental-health-lead-courses/
The wait is nearly over for our first working party update, with our first meeting taking place very soon!
Alerts and Releases September 2025
- High Caffeine energy drinks have been banned: Plans set out this September will help boost kids’ health by stopping retailers from selling the drinks to children in a move that could prevent obesity in up to 40,000 children and deliver health benefits worth tens of millions of pounds.
- Crackdown on bad behaviour and attendance: Bridget Phillipson starts the new school year by calling time on bad behaviour as shocking new data shows seven out of every 30 classroom minutes are lost to kids kicking off.
- The Children’s Plan released from the Children’s Commissioner: The report gives 5 alarming concerns painting a picture of overwhelmed services, high referrals and long waiting times. We think that this report will be used to create and shape the new ‘white paper’ expected this term with regards to SEND provision and funding.
- School improvements teams drive up standards for all children: Nearly 100,000 more pupils set to benefit from targeted support through expanded school improvement teams, driving up standards where it’s needed most.
- Ofsted releases information and guidance on the new reforms set to go live from November 2025: Widely criticised, Ofsted’s new reforms include a new inspection report card, 4 point grading scale and a wider range of evaluation areas.
- New report on rising mental health and neurodiversity released: The new report released by The Policy Exchange entitled “Out of Control: Addressing the Rise in Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorders amongst Children and Young People,” identifies how poor incentives have driven overdiagnosis of mental ill health and neurodivergence in young people, stretching key public services to breaking point.
Our Blog September 2025
- Mobile phones in schools – how should you handle it? We discuss the nuances of mobile phone use – https://amhie.com/mobile-phones-in-schools/
- Navigating AI in school – A new guest blog from the Good Future Foundation focuses on their work helping schools navigate AI in a way that is both practical and, most importantly, responsible.
- Behaviour Awareness Week 2025 – We discuss different common classroom behavioural tropes and methods to monitor and improve outcomes for these students https://amhie.com/behaviour-awareness-week-2025/
New research September 2025
A new study has revealed a link between adult mental health and verbal abuse in childhood – https://amhie.com/new-research-how-verbal-abuse-effects-mental-wellbeing/: A key finding highlights that both physical and verbal abuse independently contribute to lower mental well-being in adulthood, with combined exposure having a compounded negative effect, suggesting verbal abuse warrants similar attention to physical abuse in prevention efforts.