Hope School is a maintained special school that provides an attachment and trauma responsive environment for 68 students aged 5-11 with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) conditions and those who are neurodivergent. Matthew Darkins, PE lead, explains their approach to the programme here.
‘Hope School, as a recognised beacon of best practice in Attachment and Trauma, and alongside the HEARTs project which is committed to supporting children with complex trauma histories and attachment disruptions and improve and spread this provision across the local area, the RISE UP PE programme was seen as going hand in hand with the aims and ethos of the school.
The aim of participating in the RISE UP programme was to increase pupils’ understanding of positive mental wellbeing with the aim that this could improve pupils’ general wellbeing by shifting their mindset into one that was less restrictive and open to new concepts.
This would be achieved by;
Recognising symptoms of poor mental wellbeing
Reducing the stigma around poor mental wellbeing and needing help
Being signposted to where to go for help
Having a tool bag of proactive strategies
Linking specific strategies to their outcomes
Promoting a positive proactive approach to wellbeing including being physically active.
Application
Following the programme designed by Future Action adaptations were made to ensure that the teaching and learning was suitable both for academic needs and with dealing with uncomfortable topics and the associated feelings.
The main concept that was taken was “head, hands, heart” so in each session pupils are engage in a starter activity where they reflect on positive aspects of their day/ week/ half term and then have the opportunities to share these, often in a collaborative learning style whereby pupils are tasked to “find someone who…” where pupils put up their hand, receive a high five and then share their thinking, the challenge being to find someone you agree with and someone who you respectfully have a difference of opinion with.
Pupils would then move on to core learning, the hands part of the session where we got stuck in to the topics, often an area of poor mental wellbeing or proactive strategies. This would entail them exploring the symptoms pf poor wellbeing to aid them in being able to recognise this in themselves and others.
The message was made explicit each week that experiencing one or more of these symptoms didn’t mean somebody necessarily could be diagnosed with a condition, and that this would, occur when the behaviours impacted on the living of their day to day lives.
Pupils were signposted to local charities for CYP mental wellbeing and advised to speak to a GP should they have any concerns.
Pupils continued to work collaboratively completing graffiti walls to share their learning and support each other through peer support and peer assessment.
After these parts of the session had been completed pupils broke for lunch and had some time to digest their dinner, as well as the topics that we had just covered; this break allowed for natural conversations to persist and pupils frequently sat suggesting how we could reinforce our learning in the classroom through physical activities.
And so, the ‘hearts’ part of the sessions would commence, engaging pupils in physical activity, placing them in scenarios where they worked collaboratively towards a common goal and engaging them in ways they had been beforehand.
Although there was always a plan with progressive steps to further challenge pupils, from time to time pupils would create their own tasks and lead on their activities.
It should be noted that at the same time three pupils who were non participants in physical activity were targeted and a personalised programme was designed to engage them in short physical interventions that aimed to develop their fundamental movement skills, with the aim to improve their ability to take part in a wide range of activities and raise their confidence and motivation in doing so.
Impact
There was a dramatic shift in the mind set of pupils over the course, first of all during the sessions, then each Thursday as they looked forward to it, but progressively this started to form a habit and bred into an upturn in general wellbeing across the class and a down turn in incidents, again, firstly on Thursdays but then across the rest of the week.
This was backed up by data which showed a reduction of negative incidents comparing pre RISE UP PE (11.4.24) and post; the incidents dropped from an average for the class of 16.3 incidents a week to 3.2 incidents a week.
This can be seen in the image below, which shows behaviour consistently improving from the commencement of the programme.
Moreover, pupils were asked to complete a short questionnaire pre and post programme around wellbeing, with their responses a showing a positive trend in their understanding and perception of their own wellbeing. (Rating a statement from 1-5, data taken from 10 pupils).
| AVR PRE | AVR POST |
I understand the terms positive and negative mental wellbeing. | 2.7 | 4.0 |
I am confident in recognising symptoms of poor mental wellbeing. | 2.2 | 3.9 |
I know where to go for support if I have concerns over my own mental wellbeing. | 3.5 | 4.2 |
I know different proactive strategies I can use to improve my mental wellbeing. | 1.8 | 3.6 |
I feel positive about my wellbeing. | 2.2 | 4.0 |
I feel positive about the future. | 2.6 | 3.3 |
Furthermore, pupils were quick to give their feedback in each session, picking up on common themes and saying how the physical aspect of learning felt, and outlining the benefits of these. Pupils’ voices have been showcased in an assembly, and remain on display in the gym, where PE lessons and forums (pupil voice) take place.
We had one young person who struggled with Emotionally Based School Avoidance, we managed to initially engage him through the RISE Up activities which he really enjoyed. This was an important first step in building his feeling of safety and trust in us. I am delighted to say that he has now fully returned to all lessons across the school and is thriving.
Pupil Voice
These were a range of comments from our brilliant young people:
“Playing in a team is good because you have to work together with people you may not like but when you win together you make new friends.”
“When I am feeling silly or wound up, I like to do the repeaters because they slow me down and make my mind calm. We now have a (exercise) bike in the room next to our class and I like to use it because it helps me manage my anger and emotions.”
“I like the team challenge because I like helping people and when we do this, I can show people what to do and help them and that makes me feel good”
“The training I have been doing with Sir is fun and it makes me stronger in my muscles and means I can do more things like rock climbing, aerial ninjas and tennis”
“I like the stress busters, like tackling a rugby bag because when I ran to it, I had lots of energy build up and when I hit the bag it all went away. It made me feel relieved and calm.”
Moving forward
In order to ensure that more pupils are able to access the RISE UP PE programme it will be rolled out to all upper key stage 2 pupils in Hope School, and incorporated in the curriculum alongside PE, PSHE and Life skills, with time being dedicated specifically for RISE UP PE. With smaller, manageable activities and tasks adapted to the needs of younger pupils to cover as part of their curriculum.
In addition to targeted groups, some of the themes and opportunities will be brought over into the school community and offered to all pupils by creating more opportunity to be physically active each day, from new and a wider range of playground equipment to an outdoor speaker so pupils can express themselves by dancing break times away.
Pupils will have access to a sensory circuit room, where through use of the Zones of Regulation pupils will be able to be guided through a sensory intervention tailored to their needs by a member of staff from their class.
The PE curriculum has been planned to be progressive and reflect on pupils’ mental wellbeing throughout as well as offering a broad range of activities to cater for everybody’s needs, including a wider offer of sports at CAP (Curriculum Around the Pupil – enrichment clubs) to give a greater choice to pupils to choose something that they will enjoy. Additionally, the non-sporting CAP clubs have been selected based on pupil voice with the overarching aim to be around pupil’s wellbeing.
As a school we recognise the importance of offering pupils’ opportunities to explore their own thoughts and feelings, and develop their core values, and through the RISE UP PE programme pupils have honed in on these concepts and explored them strategically, the next step will be to weave this into the wider day and curriculum to the benefit of all.’
Expressing Gratitude
We would like to thank Matthew Darkins and the brilliant team at Hope School for their fantastic work supporting their brilliant young people.
We would also like to thank Sport England, the Youth Sport Trust and Liverpool Virtual School, for funding the Liverpool RISE Up programme and the super team at Liverpool School Sports Partnership who partner with us on this transformational programme. You can access the Liverpool RISE Up Impact Report here.
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