Overview
Young people are likely to experience many pressures when it comes to negotiating the modern world. Common stressors that young people face may revolve around exams, social media and sexuality. For others, it might be dealing with difficulties at home or in friendship groups.
The pandemic undoubtedly impacted children too, with them having to adapt to a different home and schooling environment, isolating themselves away from peers, friends and hobbies. Many areas of enjoyment were put on hold at the same time as social media platforms boomed. For many, this provided a falsified ‘perfect look’ and ‘perfect life’, which may have had a longer-term impact.
It’s really important for young people to learn to develop skills to be able to manage these experiences effectively. Priory’s Emotional Wellbeing Programme formulates a series of skills-based learnings, targeted at late primary / early secondary school age, in order to fill the ‘gap’ in young people’s emotional resilience. It will help to raise awareness of emotional wellbeing amongst young people, and provide skills and support techniques to help them manage emotions through different situations.
Many of the skills might seem like second nature to adults, who use them naturally in an everyday environment. However, there are many young people that haven’t naturally developed ways of coping, for various reasons, and their emotional resilience can be erratic as a consequence.
Programme summary
- Using evidence-based techniques from the world of psychotherapy, we have brought together elements of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), emotional coping skills and mindfulness to create this programme
- The programme has been developed by highly skilled therapists who are experts in their field, particularly in providing support to young people
- It is made up of a series of videos, featuring our therapists who deliver the different emotional management skills
- The videos are a short and simple way of learning a variety of really important skills to support young people in their everyday life, through to adulthood
- Alongside the videos are written skills manuals for a facilitator to use, as well as worksheets for children to complete
- The programme can be delivered in a classroom or home environment, and facilitators are provided with the guidance to enable effective sessions to be delivered
In July 2022, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued guidelines relating to social, emotional and mental wellbeing in primary and secondary education. These highlight the importance of ensuring that the curriculum for all pupils includes evidence-based, culturally appropriate information about social, emotional and mental wellbeing to develop children and young people's knowledge and skills. You can view the guidelines here.
Programme themes
This programme contains five core theme covering areas such as managing thoughts, how to be more adaptable in situations, mood management, and how to calm yourself in situations where you feel stressed, frustrated and angry.
Before commencing the programme, please play the following video, to help introduce the programme and give a flavour for what is to come.
There are a total of 18 skills delivered, including both practical and theoretical ones. This programme is designed to be flexible to use in a blended way, and facilitators can be as interactive as they choose in delivering the programme.
Once the programme becomes familiar with facilitators, they may wish to experiment with adapting some of the demonstrations and examples to help children retain and engage with the different topics.
Using the links below, you can access the assets and videos for each section. This includes assets just for facilitators, along with handouts you can use with children when presenting each topic.
Wellbeing in Mind
Wellbeing in Mind skills aid us to be present in the activity at hand, rather than worrying about the past, future or the environment surrounding us. They are particularly useful in aiding anxiety, when feeling overwhelmed or for those of us that just need to focus within an exam or project.
Communication in Mind
Communication in Mind will focus on interpersonal and social skills, covering what assertiveness is and different communication styles.
Skills in Mind
Skills in Mind will focus on very practical coping skills that can be used in various situations. With young people’s worlds ever changing, these strategies will support the child to be able to adapt and be flexible to accommodate.
Mood in Mind
Mood in Mind focuses on skills of emotional regulation, helping children to identify which emotion they are experiencing and whether that emotion fits with the situation.
Activities in Mind
Activities in Mind focuses on interpersonal and social skills, covering what assertiveness is and different communication styles.
