Mighty Minds

Mighty Minds

Age – 5 - 11. We have the resources available to deliver Mighty Minds for both KS1 and KS2 groups.

What is Mighty Minds?

Mighty minds is an intervention programme aimed at all young people, with a specific focus on those who may be experiencing anxiety. It promotes positive mental health, managing anxiety and developing coping skills within a safe group environment.

The programme uses a CBT approach which includes: thought challenges, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, forming healthy relationships, empathy skills, understanding body clues / feelings /thoughts, relaxation skills and problem solving skills. The underlying rationale is about developing emotional resilience.

Pupils to target

To support pupils’ mental health, managing anxiety and developing coping skills. The intervention does have a specific focus on those who may be experiencing anxiety.

How it can help:

• Tackling environmental triggers

• Tackling the physiological response (relaxation/mindfulness)

• Tackling the emotions (labelling/increasing emotional vocabulary)

• Tackling the thoughts

Programme format

• 7 week intervention with a booster session 6-12 weeks after.

• Based on ideas from CBT, Maslow’s hierarchy of need, mindfulness and positive psychology.

• create an ethos and conditions that support positive behaviours for learning and for successful relationships

• provide an emotionally secure and safe environment that prevents any form of bullying or violence

• support all pupils and, where appropriate, their parents or carers (including adults with responsibility for looked after children)

• provide specific help for those children most at risk (or already showing signs) of social, emotional and behavioural problems

Here are a list of the session aims (Key Stage 1):

1. To form a group identity and begin to explore feelings

2. To recognise and describe feelings, focusing on body cues.

3. To recognise feelings in myself and others

4. To recognise helpful and unhelpful thoughts

5. To replace some unhelpful thoughts with helpful ones

6. To know how to be a good friend and what can be learned from a role model.

7. To learn how to break down problems into smaller chunks

8. To review progress (Booster session)

Here are a list of the session aims (Key Stage 2):

1. To form a group identity and begin to explore feelings

2. To recognise and describe feelings, focusing on body cues.

3. To identify thoughts

4. To practice using thought challengers to alter thinking

5. To practice using methods to encourage positive thinking and actions

6. To share ideas and solve problems

7. To develop coping plans and celebrate successes

8. To review progress

Key Points:

• The intervention is aimed at all young people, with a specific focus on those who may be experiencing anxiety.

• It is delivered for 1 hour per week, ideally at the same time. Could be 2 x 30 minute sessions.

• It is a good idea to use a quiet, calm room where there will be no interruptions.

• Try to involve parents as much as possible – hold an information session before the intervention starts and set homework tasks to reinforce skills learnt.

• Can be tailored for pupils with learning difficulties

• Involves parents and carers

• Each session follows a set structure

Who can deliver the sessions?

Anyone who works with pupils who struggles with anxiety and poor mental health , including: teachers, support assistants, learning managers, social workers, therapists or parents.

Where to access this intervention

All the planning, overview slides and all the resources are saved in the Intervention Drive:

Mighty Minds