Whole-class work, resources and activities
We develop our whole-class work, resources and activities to help pupils better understand mental health and wellbeing.
The exclusive resources we provide to our partner schools are:
- solution-focused — teaching pupils how they can use their existing skills to overcome difficulties
- strategy-building — helping pupils learn new coping strategies that work for them.
Formats of our resources include whole-class sessions, assemblies, and structured and scripted group sessions. Activities often explore age-related themes such as understanding feelings and coping with change. Discover some of the resources we have made available for all schools on our Mental health resources for schools page.
Place2Talk mental health service
Place2Talk is a mental health service that allows pupils to make an appointment to spend 15–30 minutes with a trained counsellor, alone or with a friend, to discuss any issues they might have. The school's pastoral team or safeguarding staff members can also make referrals for children and young people where necessary.
The service aims to give children the tools and skills they need to deal with their problems in a healthy and constructive way. It is issue-based and solution-focused.
At least a third of pupils in our primary partner schools have used this mental health support service.
One-to-one counselling
Our one-to-one counselling service provides individual therapy sessions to support struggling pupils. The service is for children and young people experiencing things like:
- difficulties making connections with others
- lack of understanding of themselves
- difficulties processing their emotions
- trauma.
Pupils may also be referred to one-to-one counselling if they score highly on emotional or peer difficulties on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The SDQ is a behavioural screening mental health professionals use to measure the mental wellbeing of a young person.
Place2Be therapy sessions use talking, creative work and play to enhance communication skills and emotional development. Pupils are initially offered up to ten sessions that last 50 minutes each. After one-to-one counselling with us, our reports show children with severe difficulties show an improvement in mental health and find it easier to make and keep friends.
Group work
Our group work offering, Journey of Hope, is a programme aimed at developing resilience and self-confidence in children. The programme incorporates parachute games, stories and creative exercises to help children explore set themes. A mental health professional delivers Journey of Hope over eight sessions.
Sessions help children:
- develop positive strategies to cope with their feelings
- understand how to deal with challenges they may face
- strengthen their social support networks.
The programme also allows schools to identify children who may need additional support. Our evidence demonstrates that Journey of Hope improves mental health among children who participate.
CBT-informed therapy
Our Cognitive Behavioural Therapy informed targeted support, Knowledge, Insight, Tools (KIT) is available to struggling pupils in our secondary and high partner schools. This intervention was developed in partnership with the Anna Freud Centre and provides face-to-face support sessions for pupils presenting with difficulties such as:
- anxiety
- depression
- low mood.
Pupils can also be referred if they score highly on the SDQ behavioural screening or the Young Person's Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (YP-CORE). Both of these are evaluations that mental health professionals use to measure the mental wellbeing of a young person.
Parent-child support sessions
Personalised Individual Parenting Training (PIPT) is a parent and child training intervention developed by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM). These parent-child support sessions are for primary-aged children, especially 3 to 8-year-olds, who are experiencing conduct, emotional and behavioural difficulties and aim to:
- promote positive child/parent relationships
- improve prosocial behaviour (behaviour that benefits others)
- reduce undesirable behaviour.
We offer pupils 6-10 support sessions together with their parent(s) or carer(s). During sessions, a trained therapist will coach children and their parents and carers on how to interact child more positively.
