Schools are in a unique position to offer mental health support adapted to the needs and to the varyingsituations of children. One way to reach a wide number of children for mental healthcare interventions isthrough classroom-based programmes. While several instances of creative arts therapies school projectsare found in the literature, no critical review of classroom-based creative expression programmes exists todate. Following a review of scientific publications, 19 articles referring to 8 different programmes wereidentified and examined in order to explore what are the effects of classroom-based creative expres-sion interventions on children’s mental health. Overall, the results indicate that programmes containinga major component of creative expression can be beneficial to children but this needs to be consid-ered with moderation. On one hand, significant improvement was found in hope, coping and resiliency,prosocial behaviours, self-esteem, impairment, emotional and behavioural problems (especially aggres-sive behaviours), construction of meaning and PTSD scores. On the other hand, some studies also reportedno significant change in prosocial behaviours, self-esteem, emotional and behavioural problems, copingand resiliency of adolescent boys and PTSD (for a lack of a targeted intervention). These mixed resultsraise important questions that need to be addressed in future research