Scarborough primary school helps children's mental health and wellbeing with new scheme

A Scarborough primary school is tackling their children’s emotional health and wellbeing head on.

At the start of this academic year, Brompton and Sawdon Community Primary School embarked upon a pilot scheme for Scarborough schools to embed myHappymind, an award-winning children’s mental health scheme used by hundreds of thousands of children and adults across the country in the NHS, nurseries and schools.

myHappymind, is the brainchild of Laura Earnshaw, who developed the scheme after she found out that her child was struggling to settle in at school.

The scheme reveals all the science backed secrets to empower and educate parents, teachers and children, to future proof their mental health – building resilience and self-esteem.

At Brompton and Sawdon Primary School, each class had bespoke myHappymind lessons by an individual journal for each child. Over time, the children learn key coping strategies alongside the reasons for why they feel the way they feel.

The five core pillars are Celebrate, Appreciate, Relate, Engage and Meet you Brain.

This learning is then embedded into all that the children do in school. From conversations around feeling nervous, tummy ache, shy, angry – to a programme of afternoon workshops.

To compliment the learning scheme, Brompton and Sawdon developed a family workshop programme for after school. These workshops were hugely supported by local organisations and individuals, that also have wellbeing at the heart of all that they do.

The sessions were open to all children and family/friends were encouraged to come along.

The children and families learnt crucial skills around the benefits of good sleep by The Sleep Charity and Yoga and Mindful breathing from Little Yoga Stars.

They have also learnt self-defence and bootcamp exercise from AH Trilogy, childrens massage by Claire Jackson Therapies and understanding feelings and why it is good to talk with Nina Dowdeswell Counselling.

As well as these, they also learnt why being different can be a good thing with Alan Banks and Guide Dog Oscar, healthy eating tips and tricks from Phunky Foods, building resilience by The Childrens Society and exploring why we feel anxious with Compass Buzz.

After just one term of running this activity and developing these skills and connections with the wider community, the school is delighted to be able to offer three new initiatives into the Spring Term.

Firstly, Amanda Howes from AH Trilogy will be running a weekly self-defence club for the older children. This was developed after the the children said they wanted to know how to stay safe when out and about, but more importantly how to manage their emotions and actions when in a stressful or frightening situation.

Secondly, Alan Banks and his Guide Dog Oscar are to become key members of the school, as Oscar will be the ‘informal’ school dog. The children all fell in love with him when he came to visit, and there was much discussion around how he made them feel calm and relaxed.

Oscar – with Alan – will come into school once every half term, to have lunch with the children and spend time with those that need a little extra ‘Oscar-love’!

Thirdly, Nina Dowdeswell Counselling has been able to access funding for 121 counselling and craft therapy for the children, supported by Malton Community Counselling, a Malton based charity, that has been offering counselling, and other accessible therapeutic interventions, across North Yorkshire for 28 years.

Thanks to funding from The Woodsmith Foundation, the charity has been able to provide counselling and play and creative art therapy to children and young people living in Scarborough and Whitby since 2022.

Brompton and Sawdon Community Primary School have now taken up the charity’s offer as part of their commitment to meet the needs of the students’ mental health.

A small team of counsellors will be working with children from January 2024, on a one-to-one basis, as well as providing play and crafts therapy to small groups. Community Counselling is continuing to offer this to other schools in the area up to the end of March 2024.

The school are on a mission to help in the conversation around Children Mental Health and are delighted to be doing their part in supporting their children and families in line with their core pillars of Family, Respect and Ready to Fly.