Showcasing MindMate
Nursery
In Nursery, the children have been developing their confidence settling into a new environment, experiencing new social situations and becoming more outgoing towards unfamiliar people. They have been learning about different feelings through their class novel ‘Owl Babies’, talking about the character’s feelings and relating them to their own. The children have been introduced to ‘Rainbow’ the monster who they can cuddle if they feel sad or worried. They have also been working on developing positive relationships and friendships with their peers.
Reception
In Reception, the children have been learning about different feelings and how to consider how others may feel in different situations. They have been continuing to build and develop positive relationships and friendships with their peers. The children have been showing their maturity playing co-operatively together in role play situations. In Reception, the children continue to use their Learnasaurs, that they first met in Nursery, to help them be effective learners – Tryasaurs, Explorasaurs and Thinkasaurs.
Year 1
In Year one, the children have been further developing their knowledge of different feelings that they learnt about in the Early Years. They have developed appropriate vocabulary to be able to describe how they feel and know it is possible to experience many different feelings (even all at once) and that this is okay. They have also been learning about how to deal appropriately with their emotions. The children have focussed on the emotion of being ‘happy’, thinking about what makes them happy and the impact that this can have on other people. Through the story of ‘Elmer’ they have explored the difference between laughing with someone and at someone.
Year 2
In Year two, they have been learning about their strengths and that these should be celebrated. The children have been using the short clip of ‘King Robert the Bruce and the spider’ to develop their understanding of perseverance and being resilient even when they find something difficult. They have been setting goals for themselves that challenge them but are achievable. In year two, they have also been using a clip from ‘Dr Seuss: The Sneetches’ to help them identify when behaviour is kind, caring and co-operative.
Year 3
In Year Three, the children have been learning to understand that one person’s achievements can be very different to another’s. They have continued to build on the skills they learnt in year two by talking about why people set goals and identify their strengths and that they should be proud of their strengths and achievements. The children have continued to develop their resilience to overcome things that they find difficult and turn it into something positive. The children have also revisited the story of ‘The Rainbow Fish’ which is first introduced in the Early Years. They have used the story to think about the behaviour of others and how they may come across kind and unkind behaviours from others and what to do if this happens e.g who they can talk to.
Year 4
In Year Four, the children have been continuing to extend their vocabulary previously learnt in Mindmate sessions and researching new vocabulary to describe their feelings using a thesaurus. The children have been discussing different reactions to a range of feelings and recognising how to respond appropriately to the feelings of others as our mental health can change over time. They have also been learning about healthy relationships, using ‘Ant and Dec’s friendship’ as an example to learn from. They have thought about how they can develop the skills to form and maintain positive and healthy relationships.
Year 5
In Year Five, the children have been identifying positive and negative actions and discussing how they impact on others as well as themselves. They have understood that in doing the right thing they can feel good about themselves and gain respect from others. Last year, the children learnt about healthy relationships, and they have been using this prior knowledge to identify and talk about when relationships become unhealthy. They have been exploring things that can positively and negatively affect their physical and mental health, including the media.
Year 6
In Year Six, the children have been learning about self-integrity by discussing who and what they are influenced by building on their previous years learning. They have thought about positive and negative influences that different situations have had on them. The children have been developing an understanding of the difference between physical, mental and emotional health and know that each is important in order to live a happy and healthy life. They have learnt to identify some strategies for dealing with negative influences. They have extended their prior knowledge of what constitutes a positive and healthy relationship and have been developing the skills they need to form and maintain such relationships. They have been thinking about the qualities that they admire in themselves and others using the ‘Believe in yourself’ Mindmate Clip.
