Healthy Schools: loneliness

Loneliness has serious implications for short and long-term health. To combat loneliness, this page mainly focuses on resources that you can share with children and young people.

Find all Healthy Schools resources here

Back to top

Understanding loneliness

What is Loneliness? (PDF, 117KB) is a resource that can support staff to structure a conversation to help children to understand what loneliness is and why they may have been feeling lonely.

This short British Red Cross video (1min) could help students to identify the resources that can help them when facing a challenge:

In this other video, also created by the Red Cross, young people talk about how they stay connected and what makes their connections with friends and family meaningful to them:

Back to top

Support lonely students

These PHE resources (external link) should help children and Young People talk about loneliness, this includes:

• How to help students explore the meaning of loneliness and connection as part of our new Building Connections topic.
• Helping students to understand that everybody feels lonely at times, but there are actions they can take to help build connections.
• Resources include using peer-to-peer discussion, videos and activities, which will help students explore the meaning of loneliness and connection.

Back to top

Helping ourselves combat loneliness

• 6 Ways to Tackle Loneliness (PDF, 133KB)
• 3 tips from Youngminds on reducing loneliness (external link) could help children and young people in coping with their loneliness.
• This short video (1min) leads on an activity to remember who children and young people can turn to for support, by drawing a map of their ‘web of connections’ and think about their relationships:

• Loneliness Help and Support (PDF, 101KB) - some helpful helplines and text support from YoungMinds.

Back to top

More resources

Loneliness can be acute due to bullying or loss but can be helped thanks to social skills or emotion regulation. 

Back to top