BBC - Education, Feelings - Parents and Teachers

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This website addresses the area of emotional health which is part of the 5/14 health education curriculum in school. Mental and emotional health is fundamental to good general health and well-being and impact greatly on how well children do at school. Children need a healthy, supportive, stimulating environment in which to grow and develop to help build self esteem and good relationships.

Parents and carers have a vital role in nurturing positive emotional wellbeing in their children. With this support children are more likely to become confident, happy and ambitious young people. The advice and example given in the family setting have a huge impact on the attitudes our children build towards healthy living.

It is important that parents and the school work in partnership to ensure that children get the clear message that they are valued as individuals and their health and well being are a priority to both their parents and the school.

Children need the opportunity to talk about things that concern them and to know they will be listened to both at home and at school.

When parents work in partnership with the school they can receive good advice and support in promoting the health and well being of their children especially in relation to sensitive issues around emotional health. Our children’s health can be a responsibility shared with a network of people and parents can gain satisfaction from making an important contribution to the life and work of the school.

This website is one way that parents can work with their children on some of the topics covered at school around the subject of emotional health .The scenarios in the programme can be the trigger to open up debate around sensitive issues.

It can allow children to tell how they feel and gives parents the opportunity to give advice on how to deal with difficult situations in the safety of their own home.
It can be used as homework where school and home each play their part in the children’s personal and social development.
It gives parents and insight into the work of the school and gives a clear role for parents in their children’s school work.

Background Notes 5/14 Health Education

Learning and health go hand in hand as good health is a prerequisite for educational achievement. Every child deserves the best possible start in life and be to given the opportunity to achieve their potential. To unlock this potential children must be healthy, attentive and emotionally secure.

5/14 guidelines on Health Education give advice on how to give the children and young people the knowledge and skills to make good decisions about their health in order that they may value themselves and take responsibility for their own health both as individuals and as citizens in society.

Every school has been charged to become a Health Promoting School by 2007. The concept of Health Promotion is fundamental to the ethos and practice within schools and acts as a powerful force in supporting and reinforcing the subject matter and messages from the Heath Education Curriculum.

A Health Promoting School has a curriculum and approaches to learning and teaching that provide appropriate challenge, participation and support for all pupils and have a positive effect on their health and well being.

These approaches should be lively and participative in nature and provide appropriate opportunities for pupils to learn individually in groups and as a class. Pupils’ sense of self worth and their wider well being are reinforced by learning experiences that they find enjoyable, relevant and successful. They develop a variety of personal and social skills in safe but challenging settings that are well targeted to their interests and abilities. It is important to embed a positive attitude to health in everyday life.

Health Education covers three interconnected strands: Physical Health, Emotional Health and Social Health.

Of these three strands teachers often say that Emotional Health is the one they find most difficult to teach but it is the key aspect of how young people can be helped to take responsibility for their health.

This web site has been designed to help address key aspects of Emotional Health.

As pupils work through levels A-D it helps them develop the ability to:

Value oneself and others and act with understanding of other people’s feelings and behaviour.
Have empathy with others feelings and behave with understanding of their feelings and behaviour.
Recognise that different people react to different situations and feelings in different ways.
Handle one’s own and other peoples emotions and avoid reacting to them impulsively.
Understand that people operate in different groups and networks and that one person’s behaviour in any group has an impact on all the others.
Understand about loss, separation and grief in other people’s and ones own life and to handle these feelings.
Communicate with others with a widening vocabulary of feelings and emotions.
Work at and value friendship.

Feelings website – summary

The main feature of the website is a child’s trip to the park where they will meet lots of different characters and experience many different situations. There are three levels of journey through the park Levels A/B, B/C and C/D. The park has a cartoon background and props but the characters are photographs of real people with some animation. The site has both text and audio.

On coming to the site for the first time you see a short movie setting the scene and introducing the children to the characters and scenarios they may meet in the park. On repeat visits this movie can be skipped.
The child chooses a cartoon child to go to the park from a pick list of characters. They are encouraged to choose a child nearest to them in age. In level A/B the child is prompted to choose an adult to go along with the child. The child never sees the cartoon characters during the journey until the end but they are "with" them.
The journey through the park takes the form of questions and responses. The outcomes of the journey are dependant on the answers given by the child.

Other important elements

The Fountain

The movie introduces the fountain when the child first enters the park. Throughout the journey the fountain changes depending on the answers chosen to the questions. It also changes on further visits to the park.

Notice boards

In the park there are notice boards available for each level. Notice boards contain posters with important information relating to emotional health. There are also a series of vox pops with children giving their views on a variety of subjects related to the posters.

The toilets

The toilets have two main activities

a) Magnetic Poetry - a chance to write a "feelings" poem picking from a variety of words to express feelings.

b) Bog Standard facts- a host of facts, information and positive messages to choose from all written on the toilet paper.

Educational Outcomes for journey Level A/B

Question 1 Happy and sad feelings.	Question 2 Mrs Thompson and her dogs.
Question 3 Caitlin’s friend.	Question 4 Mr Berry’s flowerbeds.
Question 5 Tiny, the dog, is missing.	Question 6 Stewart and the posters.

Level A	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6
Emotional Health
Recognise their own feelings and emotions about themselves and towards others	•	•	•	•	•	•
Show an awareness of caring and sharing	•	•	•	•	•	•
Show how they respect and care for self and others			•	•	•	•
Social Health
Show simple ways of keeping the environment clean, safe and healthy eg keeping to the rules				•
Level B
Emotional Health
Recognise a range of feelings and emotions they and other people can experience at different times	•	•	•	•	•	•
Communicate with others through a developing vocabulary relating to emotions and feelings	•	•	•	•	•	•
Recognise the value of family and friendships			•
Identify what being a friend means			•
Know ways to help others				•
Social Health
Identify ways in which they can contribute to keeping their the environment clean safe and healthy eg keeping to the rules				•

Educational Outcomes for journey B/C

Question 1 Park to close.	Question 2 Mr Berry & the ball.
Question 3 Stewart & the basketball.	Question 4 I dare you.
Question 5 The lost child.	Question 6 Caitlin’s ball.
Question 7 Mrs Thompson and her dogs.

Level B	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7
Emotional Health
Recognise a range of feelings and emotions they and other people can experience at different times	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Communicate with others through a developing vocabulary relating to emotions and feelings	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Recognise the value of family and friendships	•	•					•
Identify what being a friend means
Know ways to help others		•	•	•	•	•
Social Health
Show ways of getting help in the event of an incident					•	•
Identify ways in which they can contribute to keeping their the environment clean safe and healthy eg keeping to the rules		•	•	•	•	•
Physical Health
Learn ways to help our bodies be healthy
Know that being healthy helps us enjoy life
Identify ways of using the road safely						•
Level C
Emotional Health
Use personal and interpersonal skills to relate to other people	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Recognise how circumstances can change emotions		•	•	•	•	•	•
Show ways of making and keeping friends
Show safe ways of dealing with a range of situations including those which present risk				•	•	•
Social Health
Demonstrate safe ways of responding to risks to health and safety in the community					•	•
Physical Health
Demonstrate simple decision making strategies in relation to keeping healthy and safe			•	•	•	•
Identify links between our health and our actions

Educational Outcomes journey Level C/D

Question 1 Protest at the park.	Question 2 Trying cigarettes.
Question 3 Who to trust.	Question 4 Bullying.
Question 5 Getting divorced.	Question 6 Mrs McKenzie’s mobile phone.
Question 7 Caitlin’s ball.

Level C	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q5	Q6	Q7
Emotional Health
Use personal and interpersonal skills to relate to other people	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Recognise how circumstances can change emotions	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Show ways of making and keeping friends	•	•	•	•
Show safe ways of dealing with a range of situations including those which present risk	•	•	•	•	•		•
Social Health
Demonstrate safe ways of responding to risks to health and safety in the community	•	•	•	•			•
Physical Health
Demonstrate simple decision making strategies in relation to keeping healthy and safe	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Identify links between our health and our actions	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Level D
Emotional Health
Demonstrate an understanding of their emotional needs and strengths e.g. resilience and ways of managing pressure	•	•		•	•	•
Understand ways that people behave in different situations	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Recognise that peer and media influences can affect the choices they make	•	•		•	•
Show ways of taking responsibility for keeping self well and safe	•	•	•	•	•		•
Understand ways to show consideration for others, their safety and well being	•	•	•	•	•	•	•
Social Health
Recognise the right to equal opportunity for all members of the community.	•			•		•
Physical Health
Identify strategies for keeping healthy and safe	•	•		•	•		•
Recognise the ways in which behaviour can influence people’s relationships	•	•		•	•	•	•
Understand the links between physical, emotional and social health	•	•		•	•		•

Using the site

Emotional Health can be a difficult area to address and the site can be used to explore some of the areas covered by the 5/14 guidelines. It makes appropriate use of active learning through simulation activities. It can be used to support work in the school’s current Health Education Programme.
The web site can be used by children as individuals, in pairs or in small group encouraging discussion and collaboration.
It builds on previous learning and makes use of children’s own evaluations of their Emotional Health.
It ensures that the teaching and learning takes place in a context where children can explore difficult Emotional Health issues safely and openly.
Cooperative group work around the issues raised in the site develops interpersonal skills, effective relationships, shared responsibility and an acceptance of and respect for individual differences. It can significantly enhance social development as well as providing an appropriate context for issues that are particular to Emotional Health.
The children go on the journey through the park and have to make decisions about the choices they want to make in response to the various scenarios they find themselves in. Their responses determine the route their journey will take.
The site asks searching questions which encourage thought and discussion before decisions are made.
At the end of their journey through the park the children are given a review of what happened to their character during the journey.
The children are asked direct questions to review the choices and decisions they have made in each scenario.
Role play is a particularly useful follow up activity to further develop the ideas met within the site.
The site can be used by the teacher on an interactive white board to open up classroom debate. Children can compare the journeys they have taken through the park, discuss their decisions and give reasons for their choice.
At the end of programme the children are given the opportunity to go on another journey as a different character or as the same character perhaps making different choices.
The posters give important information which further support the issues visited throughout the journey and offer sound practical advice relevant to their emotional health needs. They giving more in depth information and encourage further discussion and follow up work.
The Bog Standard facts accessible when visiting the toilet area are useful facts, information and positive messages which build on the knowledge gained and emphasise good role models for responsible decision making and healthy living.

The Feelings online site is rich in content and easy to use. It uses illustration, photographs and lots of audio to help the younger pupils and we ask you to be patient while it loads The length of time it takes depends on the speed of your connection. We have provided loading games for the children while the individual questions are loading. We feel it’s well worth the wait!

Useful Links

Problem Pal Game

What is it?

This is a paper activity for use in the class room. The question for the children is... Would they make a good Problem Pal (or Agony Aunt)? Are they good at advising other people what to do in difficult situations?

Preparation

Print off the Problem pal questions, answers and feedback slips and cut them out. Paste the questions on one card. On another card paste each answer on one side of card and the feedback for that answer on the other side of the card.

Play in small groups or pairs

One child acts as the ‘Problem Pal’ and a class mate/teacher sets out the questions/answers/ feedback and keeps score.

How to play

Question 1 is presented to the child. They have a choice of 3 answers to choose from. The child chooses the answer and is given feedback on the quality of the answer. They are also given a score for the answer between 0 and 2 points. (2= best answer). There are 4 questions to answer in total.

Scoring

0-2 Points. You would not make a very good problem pal.

2-4 Points. Not bad. You have some good advice to give.

4-6 Points. Getting better. It might be worth coming to you for some advice.

7-8 Points. Top of the class! You are good at giving advice.

Get problem pal work sheets here

Questions

Answers

Other useful Scottish BBC Learning resources

Hopscotch

This is a radio resource for the 5-7 age group. The programme ‘Why are you cross?’, which is transmitted on 9^th January 2007, is about dealing with anger. Free support for all BBC Scotland Education programmes is available at www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/teachers.

Credits

Production Team: Johanna Hall, Lucy Conan,Tanya Carmichael
Designer: Kevin Bain
Coders: Cris Walsh, Ray Anderson
Education Consultants: Mike Ciesla, Morag Johnson

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