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Each week, we feature 'The Wellbeing Bookshelf' - a spotlight on one key resource to support your family. Whether it is a book, a podcast, or a helpful website, we will hand-pick tools that offer insight, practical advice, comfort, and inspiration.
Check out this week's recommendation, along with news on upcoming wellbeing events.
The Wellbeing Bookshelf
The Wellbeing Bookshelf
Topic: Helping children visualise and share their worries
This Week’s Recommendation: Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival
Following last week’s focus on the 'gold standard' parent manual by Creswell and Willetts, we are shifting our focus to a resource designed to help children visualise their internal world. While our previous recommendation provides the 'how-to' for parents, Ruby’s Worry provides the visual language children need to express their feelings.
If you're interested in applying the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) strategies from Creswell and Willetts, this book is an invaluable companion. It perfectly demonstrates the concept of 'externalising' - the idea that a child has a worry, but they are not the worry. By depicting anxiety as a yellow, scribbly character that exists outside of Ruby, the book helps children see their feelings as something manageable rather than a part of their identity.
What makes Tom Percival’s work particularly impactful is his clever use of colour. As Ruby’s worry grows, the vibrant colours of her world begin to fade into grayscale. This visual shift helps children understand how anxiety can tint their perspective, and can be a powerful talking point between you.
As the creator of the acclaimed 'Big Bright Feelings' series, Tom Percival has become a leading voice in children’s mental health.
‘Helping children with…’ Webinars for parents 2025/26
‘Helping children with…’ Webinars for parents 2025/26
Achieving for Children’s Mental Health Support Teams are delivering a series of webinars for parents of primary-aged children. The ‘Helping Children with …’ series of webinars will cover a range of common difficulties experienced by children and will aim to share evidence-based strategies to help parents and carers support their children with these difficulties. Below is a list of webinars on offer over the coming months.
Friendship difficulties
Friendship difficulties
In this webinar we will learn how to support our children develop their friendship skills: learning to communicate better, repair difficulties, and negotiate solutions when relationships between peers are tricky.
Tuesday 27th January, 6pm
Challenging behaviours
Challenging behaviours
Children often communicate their needs through their behaviours. The ‘Helping children with challenging behaviours’ webinar will help you to learn about the different factors that can impact children's behaviours, build or strengthen positive relationships by reinforcing the importance of giving positive attention. You will also learn strategies to establish home rules and boundaries to create a safe and structured environment for your children.
Tuesday 3rd February, 6pm
Self esteem
Self esteem
In this webinar we will explore what self-esteem is, how low self-esteem can develop and be maintained, and will introduce some practical techniques to support you to improve your child’s low self-esteem.
Tuesday 10th February, 6pm
Transition to Secondary
Transition to Secondary
In this webinar we will explore the main worries children may experience when moving from primary to secondary school. We will help parents/carers think about the different ways to help to support and get their children prepared for the transition.
Thursday 7th May, 9am or Tuesday 19th May, 6pm
All Webinars are 60 minutes long, with 15 minutes at the end for questions and answers.
Parents and carers can sign up to the webinars here.
Information from the Mental Health Support Team (MHST): Making a Self Referral
Information from the Mental Health Support Team (MHST): Making a Self Referral
Who are we?
Who are we?
The Mental Health Support Team (MHST) is a schools-based service, supporting children, young people and parents’
emotional wellbeing in a range of ways.
Who do we support?
Who do we support?
We work with children and young people, from the age of
5 to 18, who experience difficulties with their emotional wellbeing and mental health. These can be common for lots of young people and might include sadness, feeling low, anxiety or low self-esteem.
In primary schools, we also offer parents individual guided self-help sessions based on cognitive behaviour therapy principles, either around supporting their child to manage anxiety, or behaviour that challenges.
Whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing
Whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing
In addition, we support schools and families with:
In addition, we support schools and families with:
● parent webinars on a range of topics
● coffee mornings based at your child’s school
● staff workshops and support
● group work, assemblies and workshops to promote
emotional wellbeing
To self-refer, please follow the link below to complete a short online form:
Mental Health Support - Self Referral - Achieving for Children
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