Healthy Minds

Lesson 1  Resilience & Harnessing Positive Emotions

• Understand that life is a journey with challenges (big and small) and it is our resilience that helps us overcome these
• Understand the role of positive emotion
• Discover that all emotions can be helpful and unhelpful, and we can learn to regulate them
• Understand that we ALL have resilience

Lesson 2  Connecting the Brain, Emotions & Thoughts

• Understand the brain and the role of emotions
• Consider the importance of being calm to help with resilient responses
• Discover the link between thoughts, feelings and behaviours

Lesson 3 Introducing Gremlin Beliefs

• Understand that resilience skills can help us understand why we react the way we do
• Identify common Gremlin Beliefs of resilience
• Recognise that the Gremlin Beliefs are not in control

Lesson 4 Optimism & Evidence

• Understand there is a difference between optimistic and pessimistic thinking
• Know the importance of respect for different perspectives
• Discover how to use evidence to create more flexible and accurate thinking

Lesson 5  WoBbLe

• Understand the importance of gratitude
• Know how to use the WoBbLe skill – to tame the Catastrophising Gremlin Belief
• Discover how to calm down when emotions are strong

Lesson 6  Resilience Planning

• Understand all the resilience skills covered in the lessons
• Create an individual resilience plan
• Consider how resilience skills can help one express themselves and understand others

Lesson 1 Introduction to media literacy and social media

• Define media literacy.
• Explain media literacy concepts.
• Identify text and subtext in media examples.
• Recognise the characteristics of social media versus traditional media.

Lesson 2 Fantasy and Reality

• Define and recognise characteristics of reality television.
• Identify the difference between reality and fantasy in various types of media.
• See the untold stories when watching reality television.
• Define and understand what it means to set a boundary in relation to on-line.

Lesson 3  Advantages & disadvantages of social media & setting boundaries

• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of social media.
• Share experiences and stories of boundary setting or boundary crossing online.
• Understand the impact of social media activity on future goals and aspirations.

Lesson 4 Benefits of social media

• Explore the positives of using social media and how it impacts how we receive, alter, and share information.
• Create their own guidelines for using social media in a positive way.
• Discuss how media can be used to build community, find support, and decrease isolation in their lives.

Lesson 5  Creating identity maps

• Describe my online identity and how I want to be thought of by others online.
• Create a map connecting my current identity to future goals.
• Describe this to other people.

Lesson 6  Presenting identity maps

• Communicate how social media forms part of my identity now and in the future.
• Identify that other students have different ideas and identities and use social media in different ways.
• Explain how my online identity may influence my future.

Lesson 1 Puppy training

• To help students recognise the importance of breath in training their faculty of attention
• For students to gain an insight into the untrained mind’s fickle nature–it is like a puppy
• To allow the students to develop some simple tools for training their own attention
• To encourage key attitudes to attention-training: kindness, patience, repetition. To help students to understand that we can choose what to do with our attention

Lesson 2 Working with Worry

• Understand stress: where it comes from, why it is necessary, how it works and the potentially harmful effects.
• Identify and draw their “stress signature” -where in the body do they feel stress?
• Learn to work with stress in a slightly different way.

Lesson 3 Beditation

• Sleep has a really important role to play in how we feel and think.
• Poor sleep can have a real impact on our day-to-day functioning and wellbeing.
• Poor sleep often results from the mind’s natural tendency to worry.
• Practices like Beditation help us to work with this by switching us from ‘thinking’ mode to ‘sensing’ mode

Lesson 4 Sleep

• Humans are social beings, and our brains are designed to help us identify the emotions and experiences of others as well as our own.
• These signals can sometimes be difficult read, and made all the more powerful through the combination thoughts, feelings, actions and body sensations
• Learning to ‘.breathe’ can give us the space and time to see more clearly and respond more skilfully in such situations.

Lesson 1 Revisit the Skills of Resilience

• Refresh the resilience skills
• Increase awareness of when to use the skills and in what circumstances
• Students who have not completed previous lessons gain a basic idea of the resilience skills

Lesson 2  Optimistic Thinking

• Learn to apply the resilience skills to real situations
• Understand how to recognise pessimistic thoughts and be more flexible and accurate in our thinking
• Increase knowledge of students who did not complete the previous resilience lessons

Lesson 3 WoBbLe

• Recap the WoBbLe skill – to tame Catastrophising Gremlin Beliefs
• Know when to use the WoBbLe skill
• Consider resilience and what to do in an emergency

Lesson 4 Assertive Communication

• Discover different communication styles
• Understand the beliefs that can get in the way of assertive communication
• Recognise that assertive communication allows us to take care of ourselves and is essential for healthy relationships

Lesson 5 Moving On

• Understand that we all have habits of thinking that can be hard to change
• Know that our brains are wired to notice what we want to see
• Recognise that we can use our resilience skills to deal with everyday situations as they occur

Lesson 6 Empathy & Resilience Planning

• Understand what empathy means
• Know how to stand in the shoes of others and show empathy
• Consolidate how to use the Resilience Skills in real time

Lesson 1 Being part of a group & my adult self

• Develop awareness that everyone in this class has some skills.
• Develop rapport as a class group.
• Be able to use verbal and non verbal communication to work in a group to solve problems.
• Select pictures that represent the adults you want to be In the future.
• Consider the reasons for choosing the images.

Lesson 2 Positive & negative role models

• Consider the links between the four domains of adulthood.
• Identify positive and negative role models.
• Discuss how positive and negative role models influence both success and failure.
• Understand that having goals for the future is helpful.

Lesson 3 Bucket list and timelines

• Create a wish list.
• Increase your understanding that ‘difficulties’ are normal and part of everyday life.
• Create a personal timeline including at least one fork in the road, one obstacle and/or one roadblock.
• Consider the implications of the decisions you make along the way to your future.
• Begin to make connections between the choices you make now and the four domains of adulthood.

Lesson 4  Timelines continued

• Review and complete your timeline.
• Discuss and share your timeline with others.
• Understand that discussing your timeline with others helps to understand it better.
• Consider the benefits of breaking down future goals into small steps.

Lesson 5  Actions

• Consider how I can develop clear specific actions.
• Practise setting specific actions that will help me make progress to the future I want for myself.
• Understand that what I do right now is linked directly to my future.

Lesson 6 Possible Selves Poster Boards

• Identify images of what I want to be like and not be like, next year.
• Consider the strategies and specific action I can use to make what I want to be like more achievable.
• Consider the strategies and specific actions that will help me overcome the difficulties I may face.
• Develop a poster board to illustrate the thinking I have done about my future.

Lesson 7 Pathways to the future

• Identify images of what I want to be like and not be like, as an adult.
• Consider the strategies I can use to make what I want to be like become more achievable.
• Identify that some of the strategies I am using to reach a next year possible self may also be helpful in reaching an adult possible self.
• Develop a poster board to illustrate the thinking about my future.

Lesson 8 Solving everyday problems

• Practise different problem solving approaches to solve everyday problems.
• Recognise that others have similar concerns to me.
• Understand te importance of seeking help and support from others.
• Consider the importance of starting to solve problems straight away and not delaying.

Lesson 9 Solving everyday problems & looking forward

• Practise problem solving on my own school related problem.
• Recognise that others have similar problems and concerns to me.
• Understand the importance of seeking help and support from others.
• Explore the value of seeking the view of others who may have a different perspective to my own.
• Consider the importance of starting to solve problems straight away and not delaying.
• Discuss and consider what I have learnt in From School to Life and how to use it in future.

Lesson 1 Introduction to Media Literacy and the Language of Persuasion

• Recap media literacy and the difference between text and subtext
• Accurately identify at least three techniques of persuasion in a media
• Differentiate between persuasion and manipulation

Lesson 2  Media and gender constructions

• Discuss stereotypes applied to females and males in society.
• Identify the gender constructs in various media examples.
• Examine how ideas about gender identity affect lives.
• Understand the subtext and untold stories behind media messages regarding sex and sexuality.

Lesson 3 Media and Body Image

• Identify target marketing tactics to various groups.
• Learn to understand the intersection of gender, age, and body size.
• Understand body shaming messages and how to counter these negative messages by being body positive.

Lesson 4 Media, Health, and food marketing

• Compare the marketing of a product with its actual nutritional value.
• Learn to examine which foods are targeted to specific groups of people.
• Consider a healthy balanced lifestyle.
• Identify healthier options for them and their families.

Lesson 5 Media, health, and the marketing addiction

• Contrast the ideas about a product with real facts about how the product can impact one’s health.
• Understand the connection between marketing of certain products and gambling addiction.

Lesson 6  Media and decision making

• Reflect on their decision making process.
• Analyse the ways in which we are targeted by media and evaluate how media impact thoughts, beliefs and decisions.
• Explore ways to take control of the messages that shape decision making.

Lesson 7 Creating counter advertisements

• Define what a counter ad is.
• Deconstruct and discuss sample counter adverts.
• Create a counter ad.

Lesson 8 Presenting counter advertisements

• Share the ideas behind their own counter ad messages and the messages created by the other students.
• Practice giving a presentation using visual media.

Lesson 1 Resilient Relationships

• Identify healthy and unhealthy relationships
• Consider and discuss the beliefs that can help and hinder
• Test your relationship smarts
• Explore the foundations of a healthy relationship

Lesson 2 Healthy Boundaries 

• Understand the importance of boundaries for relationships
• Explore unhealthy, toxic relationships
• Practice assertive communication for ending a relationship
• Recognising when something is unsafe and speaking up

Lesson 3 Relationship characteristics and parental responsibility 

• Understand there are different types of relationships
• Consider the role and responsibilities of successful parenting
• Explore the financial and lifestyle costs of having a baby
• Discuss what needs to be in place before deciding to have baby

Lesson 4 Big Sticky Beliefs and Relationships 

• Explore Big Sticky Beliefs
• Understand the difference between Gremlin Beliefs and Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs)
• Recognise how BSBs can impact behaviour
• Recognise how BSBs cause us to react to situations in ways that do not make sense

Lesson 5  Identifying Big Sticky Beliefs 

• Understand how BSBs work
• Learn how to identify BSBs using ‘what’ questions
• Consider the effect that BSBs can have on relationships

Lesson 6 BSBs and human connections

• Understand that BSBs can have a significant impact feelings and behaviour
• Explore how BSBs can cause people to react in different ways and have an impact on relationships
• Practise finding alternative BSBs
• Understand how to modify or challenge unhelpful BSBs

Lesson 7 BSBs and Planning for the Future

• Understand the long-term implications of Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) for our future.
• Know how to manage our BSBs and therefore control our consequences
• Discuss and agree how we will continue to use resilience skills in our lives

Lesson 1 Ambiguity, Complexity & Independent Thought

• Identify personal progress during healthy minds lessons
• Understand the concept of ambiguity in decision-making
• Know how to approach dilemmas and difficult decisions

Lesson 2 Assessing risk & opportunity

• Able to explain the importance of flexible and accurate thinking for dilemmas
• How to identify the risk and opportunity in the decisions
• Understand the power of peer influence on the decision-making process

Lesson 3 Weighing up pros and cons

• Be able to use the skills to objectively ‘weigh up’ a situation
• Understand that our beliefs play a part in our decision-making
• Be able to communicate a complex decision more effectively and negotiate if appropriate

Lesson 4 Decision Making in Romantic Relationships

• Practise using the skills to make decisions about romantic relationships
• Understand the implications of deciding to have sex
• Knowing where help is available for relationships that are unsafe

Lesson 5 Reviewing how we make decisions

• Know what to do when faced with difficult decisions and choices
• Be able to explain how to apply resilient thinking skills to decision-making
• Reinforce the impact our decisions have

Lesson 1 Defining mental health

• I know where and how to get support both in and beyond school
• I can define mental health
• I can draw parallels between mental and physical health
• I understand that mental health is a spectrum and can illustrate this with examples

Lesson 2 The science of mental illness

• I can define mental health and mental illness
• I understand that mental health is a spectrum and can illustrate this with examples
• I can explain the brain’s role in keeping us mentally healthy

Lesson 3 Understanding mental illness

• I can define depression and anxiety and outline their prevalence
• I can describe the symptoms of depression and anxiety and explain how these might impact on someone’s day-to-day life
• I can explain the most common treatments for common mental health issues

Lesson 4 Mental Illness: triggers, protective factors & promoting well-being

• I can explain a range of protective factors that reduce the risk of developing mental illness
• I understand that physical health underlies mental health and can describe small changes to promote wellbeing
• I can explain some of the common triggers for mental illness
• I can differentiate between facts and myths about mental health and know where to seek further information if I am unsure
• I can describe the ‘five ways to wellbeing’ and outline simple changes I could try to make to promote my own wellbeing

Lesson 5  Mental illness: spotting and supporting

• I can model how to have a conversation with a friend about their mental health
• I know when, where, how and why to get support for myself or a friend and I am aware of the types of support that are available.
• I can recognise the early warning signs of mental illness

Lesson 6 Healthy coping strategies

• I understand that everyone has to manage difficult situations, thoughts and feelings sometimes
• I can describe healthy and unhealthy coping responses
• I can describe a range of difficult situations, thoughts and feelings and suggest specific healthy coping strategies that might help someone manage each of these
• I can explain a range of simple coping strategies and how these might help someone manage difficult situations, thoughts and feelings
• I know how and where to access further support if I need to

Lesson 7 Reducing mental health stigma

• I can define stigma and describe the impact it may have on someone with mental illness or emotional wellbeing issues
• I can demonstrate some simple steps to overcoming mental health stigma in our school community to enable those who need it to seek support

Lesson 1 Barriers to Success

• Apply the skills of resilience to studying and exam experiences
• Identify my personal learning experience
• Identify and set objectives that improve the learning experience.

Lesson 2 Learning Priorities and Strategies

• Explore my personal strengths and weaknesses in my approach to learning
• Teach my peers about an area I am comfortable with
• Learn from my peers about an area that I am less comfortable with

Lesson 3 Learning Mindsets

• Explore the beliefs I have about learning.
• Understand that a growth mindset about learning and intelligence will help me
• Identify evidence for a growth mindset about learning

Lesson 4 Dealing with Anxiety

• Identify when anxiety is getting in the way of my learning or my ability to do my best in tests and exams
• Reinforce my knowledge of the WoBbLe skill
• Reinforce my skills for harnessing emotions

Lesson 5 Action Planning

• Practise using the skills in the moment
• Reflection on my own wellbeing, my learning process and how I can be my best in this school year
• Consider and explore anything I need clarity on

Lesson 6 Emotions, Energy and Performance

• Explore a model used in sports psychology
• Understand that our emotions impact our energy and performance
• Identify key actions to take control in a way that is helpful

Lesson 7 Strengths

• Explore and identify personal strengths
• Understand that we all have unique talents and strengths
• Consider how and when personal strengths are helpful and when they can hinder

The lead is someone who can work with Bounce Forward as our main point of contact.

The timetable needs to build one lesson per week.

You need to identify the teaching staff so they can be registered for the foundation training.

You can download the Suggested Timetable for Healthy Minds to help you with planning.

Please remember that ALL materials can be adapted to meet your delivery model and Bounce Forward will support and assist you along the way.

On boarding with Bounce Forward for foundational training, ongoing CPD, mentoring and live support.

Bounce Forward will arrange the set up data collection using the BounceTogether platform.

Teaching staff members complete .breath training, 1-day online.

Bounce Forward will provide an access code for the training which is provided by Mindfulness in Schools Project (MISP).

Following completion of .breathe training you will receive access to 4 mindfulness lessons.

Bounce Forward will provide you with access to

• 30 Resilience lessons
• 14 Social Media Investigated lessons
• 9 From School to Life lessons
• 7 Mental Illness Investigated lessons

In addition to the Healthy Minds Foundation Training – the Social Media, From School to Life and Mental Illness lessons are supported with a pre-recorded CPD video to prepare for teaching.

You provide us with your evidence of one-year of monitoring, included on school improvement plan, and timetable plans for the remaining 4 years to teaching and learning.

Celebrate your success. receive your certificate and use the kite mark logo on your website.

Receive recognition through a letter from Professor Lord Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics.

Yes! It’s the only evidence based suite of its kind!

The Education Endowment Foundation research found a positive impact on attendance, fixed term exclusions and across wellbeing outcomes.

The Department for Education and HM Treasury include Healthy Minds in guidance when considering the economic arguments for building wellbeing. You can trust that this is an investment worth making.

Bounce Forward Healthy Minds was also showcased at the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children’s Wellbeing in December 2021.

The foundation training is professionally delivered by our expert team. We know that high quality training is essential for the quality of teaching and learning and improved outcomes for students.

Having more staff trained in Healthy Minds helps with timetabling, cover and support as it gives a ‘team’ feel to this important area of education.

Bounce Forward encourages schools to think strategically about embedding Healthy Minds as part of school improvement planning.

The initial investment should be compared to resource put into ‘fire fighting’ and responding to need of students that the Bounce Forward Healthy Minds lessons will help reduce. It is estimated that each £1 spent offers a £5 cost saving.

Yes, you still take the same journey and start with the foundational skills. All materials are adaptable and Bounce Forward will support you.

The Healthy Minds curriculum is designed for secondary aged pupils.

Teach Mental Resilience is designed for primary aged children.

Please talk to us for guidance and support.

• Barnwell School – Stevenage
• Carlton le Willows –  Nottingham
• Chancellors School – Brookmans Park
• Dormers Wells High School – Ealing
• Francis Coombe Academy – Watford
• Herne Bay High School – Kent
• Holmer Green Senior School – Bucks
• Icknield Community College – Oxford
• Longdean School – Hemel Hempstead
• Rickmansworth – Croxley Green
• St Albans Girls School – St Albans
• St Augustine Academy – Kent
• St Lukes Special School – Redbourn
• St Mary’s C of E High School – Cheshunt
• St Michael’s Catholic High School – Watford
• The Leigh Academy – Dartford
• The Radclyffe School – Oldham
• Waterhead Academy – Oldham
• William Borlase’s Grammar School – Marlow

• Bridgwater College Academy
• Cornwallis Academy
• Darftford Science and Technology College
• Didcot Grils School
• Haygrove School
• Kinsgely School – Bideford
• Leigh Academy Rainham
• Mascalls Academy – Kent
• Skinners Academy
• Stratford Grammar
• The Suthers School – Newark
• Truro High School
• Welling School

Schools need to evidence the following criteria to achieve the kitemark:

• A strategic approach to wellbeing, that is owned by senior leaders, governors, and supported by parents and the wider school community.
• Regular and sustained timetabled teaching and learning, facilitated by trained staff to teach resilience skills and build social and emotional capacity.
• The teaching and learning is monitored for quality and standards in line with other subject areas.
• The work is featured as part of school improvement plans and activity is needs led based on review, data and feedback.