Workshops a lesson in good mental health
SCHOOLS IN Yorkshire are fostering good mental health in their children by signing up to an innovative programme which uses music to teach pupils about resilience.
The workshops, entitled Resilience Rocks, give Year 6 pupils the tools to tackle issues such as exam pressure, pessimism, friendship challenges and ‘head chatter’, a way of describing anxious thoughts.
To mark World Mental Health Day, Fountain Primary School, in Morley, Leeds, was one of the schools to benefit from the workshops.
Louise Ball, a Year Six teacher, said: “Our Year Six children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. It gave them the opportunity to think carefully about emotions and consider how important it is to keep our minds healthy. Many of them spoke about using the breathing technique they were taught if they ever felt anxious or upset.”
The workshops have been created by a Cleckheaton-based training company, Threedom in Education.
Founder and director, Janie Lambeth, said: “We already know that children are under pressure and Year Six is a particularly difficult year with sitting SATS and getting ready to move to high school. Helping them develop coping strategies at a young age builds resilience for those pressures and for challenges in later life.
“We use music throughout the workshops with children learning songs based on the techniques we teach and we focus on the need for sound relationships, how your social environment is important to resilience, how to lessen ‘head chatter’ from our internal monologues and how to achieve perspective.
“We can also teach them to think optimistically and the younger you get people to do that the better.”
Research shows that 50 per cent of mental health problems are established by the age of 14 and 75 per cent are established by the age of 24, according to the Mental Health Foundation.