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• Identify opportunities and possible challenges in using the material across the school
• Discuss ideas as to how progress and impact may be measured

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explores feelings in the context of the child as an individual, developing self-awareness helping the child to realise that it really is
‘Good to be me'

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Understanding feelings, and why and how they lead us to behave the way we do particularly the feelings of being excited, proud, surprised, hopeful, disappointed, worried and anxious
Self-aware ness feeling good about myself, taking risks.
Managing my feelings relaxing, coping with anxiety
Standing up for myself assertiveness, standing up for my views

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“Mental health problems are less valued than physical ones. You don’t break your leg and be told ‘that’s life’ but you do about emotional things.
If you break your leg you want it fixed.
If I have a really hard time, I want help in how to deal with it.”
YP @ YoungMinds conference 2007; CSN 2007

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Good to be me
Week 1:
Doing something to be proud of
Week 2:
Responding in an assertive way
Week 3:
Helping someone with a worry
Week 4:
Stopping and thinking when they were angry

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Red
Moving beyond the day to day norms circle time games – getting it ‘wrong’
I feel surprised …
I feel angry when
When … I feel jealous
I feel excited when …

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Game
In groups how much do you remember about each other?

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Is it good to feel proud?
Can it be good to worry?
Is it ever wrong to feel proud?
Does pride come before a fall?
How does it make you feel when someone has done something they are proud of?

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4 th January 2008 - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7169429.stm
The Agent
The Banker
The White Knight
The Bodyguard
The Black Hawk
So how can I be sure it is good to be me?

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Where are you on the scale of ‘Good to be me’?
Is this constant? When does this change?
What about those around us?
Is it really worth it?
What difference is this going to make?

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Who is in the box?
Look in the box and describe what you see
OR
20 questions … with only a Yes or No response

DVD clip
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Last night as I lay thinking here,
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear.
And pranced and partied all night long.
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I'm dumb in school?
Whatif they've closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there's poison in my cup?

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Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don't grow tall?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won't bite?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?

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Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don't grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems swell, and then . . .
The nighttime Whatifs strike again!
Shel Silverstein http://www.inquiryunlimited.org/lit/poetry/whatif.html

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Staffroom ice breaker / Coffee time activity
Who could it be?
Identify one thing you have achieved, a skill you have that others are unlikely to know about
One person collects the skills and circulates the information
Now …match the skill to the individual

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Red
How many times a day do you:
• smile
• laugh
• frown
• get cross / ‘make an angry face’

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Are our feelings mutually exclusive?

confident sad
Is it a ‘quadrant’ chart?
nervous happy

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Blue classroom organisation worry box
I caught ….. being kind suggestions box

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Blue the difference between us
Daphne Dinosaur
She is only a little dinosaur so she isn’t very strong.
Daphne doesn’t always think about what she does. If something goes wrong she just gets cross – very cross.
If someone annoys her she doesn’t stop and think about it. She just hits out at whoever is nearby.
If something good happens she gets happy – very happy, and she jumps up and down and sings and shouts.

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Blue the difference between us
Olive Owl
Olive is an owl. She is a great thinker. Olive thinks about things a lot.
If something goes wrong, she stops and thinks about how to make it better.
If something good happens she tells people how happy she is. She thinks about how they could be happy too.

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Blue the difference between us
How would they react if:
Someone accidentally bumped into her in the
Playground?
She came first in a race?
Someone was using the computer when she wanted to use it?
Someone was really kind to her?
She lost at a game of snakes and ladders?

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Blue
Questions for reflection and enquiry
Can you ever do nothing?
How do you know when to relax?
Is being calm and relaxed always good?
Can you ever be too relaxed?

Special … your name person place object skill / talent story music

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KS 1
• how I am feeling
• how I can relax
• how I can say what I need
• how I can say when I am proud

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Yellow surprises
• Are surprises always good?
• What makes you surprised?
• Is it right to surprise someone?
• What would happen if everything was a surprise?
• How would you feel if the same thing happened every day?

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Yellow knowing and owning our feelings
• How do you feel?
• Why do you feel like that
• What would you like to happen to put it right / repair the harm

Good to be me
Yellow set resource sheet: year 4

Long, long ago life was more dangerous than it is for most people living today.
Just imagine you lived then.

All of a sudden you see …
Well I don’t know. I’m just going to take a minute to think about this, should I run? I don’t want to spoil my new bear skin loincloth - and maybe it is a friendly bear anyway …
AAAARRRGGG!
a ferocious bear.
You need to act very quickly. You don’t have time to think.

You need to be able to spot danger and run away or attack the bear very, very quickly.

If we live in a dangerous place we need to make sure that our brain tells us to move out of the way pretty quickly! Luckily the feeling part of the brain does this very well. What it does is look out for
THREATS and tells the body very, very quickly what to do. The reason it can work so quickly is that it only has a few ideas about what to do.

Fight (get ready to fight)
… or …

Flight (get ready to run away)

The feeling part of your brain gets your body ready for action – ready for ‘fight’ or ‘flight’. If you are not careful it stops your brain from thinking about anything else.

Nobody knows but me that monsters come out of my wardrobe.
Nobody knows but me that I fail every test.
Nobody knows but me that I am scared of someone dying.
Nobody knows but me that I’m not so keen on dogs.
Nobody knows but me that I truly hate water.
Nobody knows but me that I can’t sleep without my teddy.
Nobody knows but me that I don’t like telling lies.
Nobody knows but me that
I don’t like being late for school.
Nobody knows but me that I always miss my mum.
Nobody knows anything round here, only me.
Castle Park County Primary School

Nobody knows how worrying it is to take a test,
And feel bad if you’re not the best.
Nobody knows how worrying it is to go to a new school,
And the children make you look like a fool.
Nobody knows how worrying it is to play a rugby match,
And worry about not making the special catch.
Nobody knows how worrying it is to see a pet die,
And think you see it in the sky.
Then you think it’s over and everything’s fantastic
And the thought comes back like a catapult made of elastic.
Castle Park County Primary School

Activity
Yellow p35
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Yellow fight, flight, think… and consider:
… staff meeting scenarios
… parent consultation events
… multi agency meetings

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• aggressive
• passive
• assertive
Q what do these words mean?
Q what social connotations do these words carry?
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

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KS 2
• self-aware about their
• learn some skills to help them manage and cope with uncomfortable feelings
• cope with or manage uncomfortable feelings such as anxiety and stress and appear unhappy or fearful emotions

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Green the proof of the pudding
Words:
• frustrated
• boasting
• proud
• mixed feelings
Q:
What happens when there is a ‘mix’ of feelings?
How does the balance of ‘ingredients’ impact on what we say and do?
What influences the mix?
How do we take into account that which is outside the school gates?

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Green / staff current school practice
How do we take into account that which is outside the school gates?

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Green peer pressure
What is the difference between: a Manchester United kit and a School uniform?

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First, We Picked Captains
First, we picked captains, though usually they had already picked themselves. Sometimes they just said it,
‘I’ll be captain,’ and we pretended our happy agreement.
It was easier that way, and dusk was falling so we needed to get started.

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We stood in a line and the captains picked us.
‘My first pick,’ one would usually say, and the other agreed, because that was easier, and he never wanted the boy that Billy picked anyway.

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After they picked us, we lined up behind them, always knowing who should be last.
But sometimes it happened the usual last hadn’t come to play, had the bellyache, or was looking after his little sister, and someone else stood not wanting to be the one not chosen, the one left over – who never even got in the line with the captain because already the rest were piling their goalpost jackets and spreading for ‘centre’

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Then, even the last-chosen would chase like mad for a miracle goal, and their wild admiration – though soon the ball was getting greasy in the dew-sodden grass, and skidded away off your boot in the wrong direction, and the other side took it and easily scored, and everyone shouted you’d kicked the wrong way.
John Loveday produced by kind permission of the author, all rights reserved. © John Loveday

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Risks
What is risk?
Which risks are worth taking?

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Risks
What risks might children take?
at home at school at ‘play’
What risks do you take?
at home at work

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Risks
What is an acceptable risk?
How to we enable our children to be risk takers and to manage risk?

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In your school …
What are the threats that your children perceive or experience
How might these be reduced?
What could you try tomorrow to reduce this?
(in your classroom, across the school?)

Maggie was asleep in bed. She was warm and cosy.
Her mum shouted up to her. ‘Time to get up! I am off to work.’
But Maggie turned over and went back to sleep.
She was dreaming a lovely dream. She dreamt she was with her friend on holiday.
Just then her older sister pulled off the bed covers and shouted,
‘You're late and stupid!’
Maggie’s brain started to feel a bit stressed and angry. She didn’t even notice.

Maggie got out of bed and went downstairs. Her sister was waiting for her.
She had Maggie's homework in her hand. ‘This is rubbish. Why are you sooooh stupid?’
Maggie felt like crying but she didn’t. She just swallowed and went to get her breakfast.
Maggie’s brain was a little bit more stressed and angry. But she still didn’t notice.
Maggie took down the cereal packet and a bowl, but when she tried to pour some out she found it had all gone.
Her sister had eaten it all.
Maggie’s brain was a little bit more stressed and angry. But still she didn’t notice.

She went to the shed.
She was late and she wanted to ride to school but her bicycle wasn’t in the shed.
Her sister had taken it. Now she had to walk to school.
Maggie’s brain was a little bit more stressed and angry. But still she didn’t notice.
When Maggie got to school she saw her friends over the other side of the playground.
They were laughing and playing together.
Maggie felt very alone and just at that minute a small boy came past and accidentally trod on her toe.
…what happened next?

Maggie burst into tears, screamed and hit the boy.
She couldn’t understand why!
When she thought about it later, she knew it was an accident.
Her toe didn’t even hurt very much

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What worries you?
What worries can you do something about?
Why do we worry about something we cannot influence?

Don’t let your worries get out of hand.
If you think you are beginning to worry, do something now.
Catch that worry!
Have a good look and check that it is a Useless Worry and not a Useful Thought.
If it is a Useful Thought take it by the hand and do something with it.
If it is a Useless Worry, take it by the throat and say,
‘You Useless Worry, go away and leave me be!’
But worries don’t go that easily. They often fight back.
So relax – a Useless Worry can’t stand a calm and relaxed mind.
But some worries are fighters. They won’t go away.
Try challenging it! Say,
‘Useless Worry, you are lying!’
Then tell it all the things that show the worry isn’t true.
Things like:
Last time things were okay …
That isn’t true because…
That is really rare …
You don’t get …
But sometimes worries won’t go away, or are very important or dangerous, and you need to TALK ABOUT THEM to someone who will listen.

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Emotional resilience
• Feelings of self worth
• Feelings of competence
• Learned optimism
• Feelings of autonomy
• The ability to bounce back in the event of failure
• The ability to take sensible risks http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/S/superhuman/are_you/ei/ei.html

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or
How do YOU persuade another person to change their mind?
How can other people try to persuade you to change your mind?
Were any ways more successful than others?
Were there any things people did or said that made you more convinced of your opinion?
Can you recall a time when anything that people said or did was used as a form of ‘peer pressure’ to get someone to do something they don’t want to do?
Have your choices ever been affected by peer pressure?

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or
How do you feel when very few people, or nobody agrees, with your belief?
Is it easy to say what you believe when you know that other people do not share your view? What can you or other people do in this situation?
Why do you think that sometimes people ‘go along with the crowd’ and do things they would not usually do?
When can peer pressure affect our judgements and the risks we are prepared to take? Is there always a choice?
How can we create an atmosphere in which everyone feels comfortable expressing their own beliefs (even if others don’t agree with them)?

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• Ladder / washing line
• Quadrant Chart
• Mood board
• Masks
• Weather / water pictures
• …

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20 minute slots
• what is working
• what you are working on
• lessons learned
• Challenges
Consider:
How am I different since we increased our focus on social and emotional aspects of learning?
½ supply cover available to those presenting at the session

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Email seal@medway.gov.uk
Forums http://www.medway.gov.uk/schoolforums/
National Strategy site http://www.bandapilot.org.uk/