A primary school is “so much calmer”, say teachers, who have started training pupils in Year 5 and 6 to be mental health ambassadors.
St Michael’s Church of England primary in Wolverhampton has begun teaching a programme to help children manage emotions, following investment from the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership.
A group of 20 pupils, which includes those with special educational needs, are being taught how to be “upstanders”, so that they can look out for younger children, the partnership stated.
One of the upstanders, Apryl, aged nine, said: “I don’t think nine years old is too young to be thinking about mental health, because everyone is unique, and it’s been fun to learn about how people struggle with their lives.”
“Sometimes you can just tell them what to do to feel better about it, and then they can get past it as we talk about it.
“It’s really helpful to talk about your mental health and your sleep.”
She added being an “upstander means looking from others’ perspectives to see if they are getting bullied”, and it could be “really important to show the other person who’s bullying that it’s not ok to bully people”.
Upstanders wear blue high-visibility jackets on the playground during break times and younger pupils can ask them for help.
Osayi, aged 10, said: “I’m one of these people that gets angry really quickly, so it’s not hard for me to spot something bad going on.
“Being an upstander is part of my life. It is all about having that integrity and determination to keep on going and doing the right thing.”
Pastoral lead at the school Rachel Vann said having the programme had made children “more confident”.
“Physically and mentally they are looking out for things all the time.
“The difference in behaviour at lunchtime and playtime, it’s so much calmer.”
The West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership, which leads prevention initiatives, has also invested £70,000 in developing and rolling out the Change Makers scheme to primary and secondary schools.
Police and crime commissioner Simon Foster, who chairs the partnership strategic board, said the scheme would encourage students to take skills “into their everyday life and use them to help their peers, keeping themselves and others safe and improving their wellbeing”.
