Published on: June 28, 2022
Workers at Compass Barnsley Mental Health Support Team have been delivering Positive Mental Health Class Workshops across primary schools in the Barnsley borough to Key Stage Two children through April, May, and June.
The workshops aim to ensure the children understand what mental health is and how we need to maintain positive mental health and explore how we can do this.
Emma Turton, Assistant Mental Health Practitioner, said: “We want to break down the stigma of talking about mental health and give our Mental Health Support Team the opportunity to build positive relationships – ensuring the children know who team members are when they see them around school or are supported by our staff at any point.”
The sessions were led by Isabelle Senior (EMHP) and Emma.
The practitioners ran the Positive Mental Health Primary Class Workshop across mornings and afternoons in schools, working with Year Three through to the Year Six classes.
Emma explained the sessions explored with the children what mental health is, how we maintain positive mental health, support bubbles and the daily emotions we may experience.
It was also hoped the children would gain a better understanding of what Compass Barnsley MHST does.
The work built on awareness sessions that the team had earlier run.
The workshops included the use of PowerPoint slides illustrating the different themes being explored along with group discussion and feedback from small groups and whole classes. An art activity around ‘growing happy feelings / things that make me happy’ was also part of the sessions which finished with a story and evaluation with the children about what they had learnt from the workshop and enjoyed.