Having looked at the importance of Relationships and Routines, this final module of our Mind The Gap: Back To School series focuses on Reflections. Watch, read and do these activities to find out how positive self-reflection is a coping skill, which helps kids to be mentally healthy, successful learners.

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Sarah Creegan explains why self-reflection is a great coping skill for children to have. She's been filming in and around her house for 10 weeks now, so we can only apologise for her garden-related gags!

Taking time to reflect on situations is a chance to engage our brains to think of learning opportunities. Take this challenge with Victoria Maitland to reflect on the last couple of months and shape your story.

Find out more about the Laughology Mind the Gap mental health virtual workshop ...

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The most successful learners are reflective; they think about their thinking (metacognition) and they learn from their mistakes. If things go wrong, they don’t keep doing what they’ve always done.

Because that would be the definition of madness, right?

In this think piece on The Recovery Curriculum, Barry Carpenter and Matthew Carpenter recommend that, in order to reskill and rebuild pupils’ confidence as learners, it is vital that we make metacognitive skills explicit.

At Laughology, we have been running training sessions which look at the importance of self-reflection and metacognition skills – in adults and in children - for a long time now. Here are some ideas on how teachers can do this in their classrooms:

Developing Planning Skills

• Ask the children, if they’re faced with a new challenge, what helps them to learn? Make a big list of their answers. For example, they might say that they’d ask questions, they’d search the internet for ideas, they’d work with others.
• Then give out sheets of A4 paper and ask them to make a paper aeroplane. The chances are that everyone will just dive in, without asking how long they have, what else they can use. That’s because, when we feel slightly under pressure (even though it’s a fun activity), all of our great learning habits are forgotten.
• We wrack our brains for the one and only way that we know to make a paper aeroplane. Do I fold it here? Or here?
• Once everyone has their finished product, have a go at flying them. But then remind the kids of their earlier list. Did anyone check the rules? Did anyone Google ‘best paper aeroplane’? Did anyone choose to work in a team?
• Now, repeat the exercise, but explain that they have 10 minutes to plan what they’re going to do. Answer questions to clarify the task.
• Notice the differences in behaviours when they get making again. There’s likely to be far more chatting, collaboration and creative thinking.
• Their second plane may or may not go further than the first, but the aim is to draw out what they’ve learnt about the importance of planning.

Reflecting On Progress

When children are learning, it helps if they understand the stage that they’re at and the emotions they’re feeling. This Laughology slide explains ‘The Learning Pit’.

Ask the children questions to help them think about their thinking:

• Did you jump voluntarily into the pit – in which case are you more motivated?
• Were you nudged or pushed in by your teacher? If so, how do you feel? What can you do to feel more confident?
• When you thought you’d nearly got out of the pit, but then slipped back a bit because your theory didn’t work, how resilient were you? What if that happens again?

Evaluating

When things go well (and, sometimes, when they don’t), we tend to move onto the next thing, without any reflection.

• Build time into lessons for the children to think about their learning, their thinking and their emotions.
• Challenge any ‘wonky’, irrational thinking or catastrophising. If they think they’ll never be able to do something, then the chances are they won’t. (See our Growth Mindset module to help kids develop a can-do attitude)
• Ask them What Went Well (WWW)?
• Get them to suggest ways that it could have been even better (EBI).

Last, but not least, remember it’s going to take time. It’ll need the right mix of nurturing and support for kids to become independent learners once more.

We know school staff will get it right though – because you’re brilliant!

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Being able to reflect is a life skill, which helps us to cope. In the busy world we used to live in, many of us charged from one event to the next, without giving them a second thought.

For example, have you ever done or said something that you weren’t especially proud of? Of course you have, we all have! But, if we don’t spend time reflecting on our thoughts, actions and behaviours, guess what happens?

We do it again!

As adults, we can help children learn to self-reflect and continually develop. Here’s how:

Having Time To Reflect

• During lockdown, many of us have valued things that, previously, we may have taken for granted. Such as food, our health, family and friends. To support children’s mental health and wellbeing, build in daily opportunities to say what they’re most grateful for. Maybe just before bedtime?

• Watch The Great Realisation. Help your child to understand that they can flip their thinking from negative to positive through the way that they look at things and the language they use. (See our FLIP It Thinking module for more advice) 

• Think about the big things that your family have noticed over the past few weeks. Bluer, less polluted skies? More wildlife? Chat about the things that you want to do to help the environment, going forward. Achieving a family challenge, such as ditching the car and cycling to visit grandparents instead, will support everyone’s physical and mental health. And contribute to the greater good.

Knowing When To Reflect

For a lot of people, including children, self-confidence may have taken a bit of a knock and anxiety levels have been raised because of COVID-19. If your child is upset or having a meltdown, now is not the time to try to talk to them – their brain will be in fight, flight or freeze mode.

Now is the time to give them a hug, if that’s what they want. Or to give them time and a safe space to calm down. 

As life begins to return to normal, use Steph Caswell’s blog: Strategies to Develop Your Child's Self-Confidence to help reduce your child’s worries and support them to regain their confidence.

Using Positive Language

• Help your child to understand that sometimes we find it tricky to cope, which is normal and okay. Explain that we can all learn to cope better and help our bodies to release helpful chemicals, by doing things such as negotiating, exercising and having a giggle. 

• Research shows that many of us don’t want our ‘new normal’ to be exactly the same as life before Coronavirus. As a family, take some time to reflect on the past 3 months. Ask What Went Well (WWW); what do we want to keep? Family walks, weekly baking?  

• Until now, we weren’t used to spending so much time together so, in all families, there will be things that didn’t go as well! Don’t focus on the negatives of these situations, try to use positive language and think of solutions instead. For example, ‘So that everyone’s happy and we don’t have rows, it would be Even Better If (EBI) we all walk away.’

Then, when a similar situation arises, guess what will (hopefully) happen?

 

Do

We’ve all had to deal with a lot of changes to our lives during lockdown and many people have adapted so well to this strange new life. So this week, I want to ask you what are you most proud of yourself for during lockdown? It would be anything you’ve achieved, anything you’ve helped others with, any positive changes that you’ve made to your lives. Also, what are you most proud of others for doing? It could be people you know, people you live with, or indeed people you’ve heard about who have gone above and beyond to do amazing things during lockdown.

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As we go back to school, we will need to put just as much emphasis on children's wellbeing as we are on filling academic gaps. Help the kids in your class develop better coping skills, by teaching them about the brain. This lesson is for Year 5, but can be adapted to other age groups.

This activity idea can be adapted for any age group, but is especially relevant for Year 6 kids, who now have their sights set on secondary school. Help them to reflect on all of the great coping skills that they now have and how they will use them in the future.

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That's all folks, for our Mind The Gap: Back To School series. 

All in all, during lockdown, we've created 4 FLIP It Thinking modules, 3 Home Schooling modules, as well as the Relationships, Routines and Reflections Mental Health and Wellbeing modules. Phew!

We hope they've been helpful and, if you'd like to know any more, just drop our Education Team an email: sarah@laughology.co.uk

 

These learning bursts will give you practical ways to support mental health for individuals, teams and organisations. They will look at preventative approaches, as well as how to support people with mental health challenges to feel safe and in control at work, both in the virtual working space and face-to-face. Supporting everyone to live and work in a way that promotes positive mental health and wellbeing.

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An introduction to the mental health continuum model from Kerry and Dave that helps us to understand we are ALL on the mental health spectrum.

This video shares four top tips for building self confidence.

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What can you do to help maintain mental health? Well, laughing is a good start…

Mental ill health is not to be laughed at, but laughing with someone who’s experiencing it or at something without causing offence, can be extremely beneficial.

How can laughing help you? In many ways...

Laughing:

• Releases endorphins which relax us and make us feel more positive  
• Helps protect us from colds and viruses (good news right now) by increasing levels of the antibody ‘Immunoglobulin A’ 
• Helps boost our immunity
• Decreases blood pressure and heart rate when done regularly
• Enhances problem solving skills
• Helps reduce the levels of stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine 
• …and much more 

How can you make yourself laugh when you really don’t feel like it?

By keeping a humour diary.

Whatever makes you laugh (your humour) is completely unique to you. Identifying and writing down what makes you laugh encourages your brain to seek out funny situations. When you’re down, pick up your humour diary, remind yourself of those entertaining moments and have a chuckle!

Everything we do, say, think and feel creates pathways in our brain. The more we do something, the stronger the pathway becomes. By repeating this process we can shape and grow our humour and develop a new, positive habit. 

How can humour help people cope with depression? 

Humour enables us to look at a situation from an objective perspective, diffusing intense emotions. That mixed with the endorphin hit of laughter can interrupt our automatic response, e.g., stress, and help us to think differently.

However, it’s important to highlight that all emotions are important and have a role to play. It’s when we get stuck and feel depressed or anxious continuously that we need to use these tools to boost our resilience.

How else can I manage my anxiety and depression?

1. Exercise – also releases endorphins and helps with cognitive function amongst many other things. 
2. Diet – Food impacts mood. Sugar is the enemy. Have treats but limit your intake. Indulge in veggies, pulses, nuts, legumes and fruit.
3. Curb drinking – alcohol exacerbates depression. It reduces serotonin (another neurotransmitter that helps us feel positive). Whilst it initially alleviates mood, this is temporary, and the after effects are much worse.
4. Screen time – Without doubt technology has helped during lockdown, but too much of it is detrimental to both physical and mental health. Ensure you take regular breaks, giving your focus to other activities.
5. Manage your social media use – Carefully select who you follow. Stick to friends who make you happy and are first on your post lockdown visiting list.  Limit your news intake if needs be and weed out the fake news!  Finally, post responsibly. You also have the power to impact someone else’s mood too, how do you want them to feel?
6. Get 8 hours sleep a night – lack of sleep negatively affects mood and memory.  It also impairs the ability of the emotional and rational parts of the brain to communicate effectively, so if you’re sleep deprived it’s harder to reconcile your situation. 
7. Establish a routine – Especially with regards to sleep, as going to bed and getting up at the same time, improves circadian rhythms (sleeping cycles). Plan things that might alleviate your feelings such as meditation, a walk outside, any activity that has brought you pleasure in the past, reading your humour diary or watching a funny show!
8. Be kind – Kindness stimulates the aforementioned serotonin and lights up the brain’s pleasure and reward system. There are many benefits to kindness. Most importantly, it increases happiness and decreases stress, depression and anxiety. 

Knowing what to do is much easier than doing what you know, especially when you’re not mentally fit. Take it one step at a time and see what works for you. 

Where to start? Having that laugh.

 

 

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This cheat sheet shares the mental health continuum - an easy to use model that explores ill mental health through to positive wellbeing, with top tips on how to prevent ill mental health and protect mental wellness.

This buzz session will help you understand how to manage emotions and thoughts, and how to develop more helpful thoughts for greater mental health.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be re-sharing our most popular content for supporting people back to work and school. Keep an eye out for our next free Zoom sessions and sign up to the newsletter so you don’t miss out.

Our brains love patterns and routines - they help to keep us safe. How can parents and school staff work together to help children re-establish some helpful habits from before lockdown? And which new routines will need to be established, to keep them safe and to get them learning effectively again, as part of a larger group?

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Sarah Creegan introduces Module 2 of our Mind The Gap: Back To School series, looking at the importance of routines on children's mental health, wellbeing and learning.

With a return to the school on the cards next week, the struggle of getting back into a routine might seem particularly daunting. However, the more we can help ourselves this week the less chance there is of a shock to the system. Victoria shares three tips on how to make the transition seem easier.

Find out more about the Laughology Mind the Gap mental health virtual workshop ...

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The vast majority of school staff are chomping at the bit to get kids back and learning – when it’s safe to do so. To support children’s good mental health and wellbeing during this transition stage, adults need to balance their keenness with caution.

Heads, teachers and teaching assistants need to remind themselves, for some time to come, of the unprecedented situation we’ve been in, the trauma that some families have experienced and what’s been happening, in homes, over the past few months:

• During challenging times, children’s behaviours often regress. This means that parents may have had to do a lot more ‘hand-holding’ and less ‘tough love’ than they ordinarily would.
• Unless they are trained themselves, parents are unlikely to have the questioning skills of teachers. How many will have had the knowledge or patience to go back a few steps, extend or tease out their thinking?
• Understandably, parents have felt anxious and more protective than ever. They may have ensured their child got things right and felt good, rather than setting challenges to stretch and develop them.

It’s going to be really important in the first few weeks back, to carefully and kindly re-establish some of the great practice which, we know, helps children to become successful learners - and which teachers do routinely.

Promoting independence

Almost every classroom will have something similar to the 5 Bs model. To develop independence, children should use their Brain, Book, the Boards and their Buddy, before asking the Boss.

When they reopen, some schools are using loose leaf paper, so kids may not be able to flick back through their exercise books to remind themselves of a concept. And, with social distancing, it won’t be as easy to discreetly ask friends or the teacher for help.

Develop an enquiring culture, especially if you don’t usually teach this group of children:

• Explain that there’s no such thing as a silly question – all questions are helpful.
• Encourage debate by asking if they want to agree, build on or challenge their classmate’s thinking?
• Make sure your working walls are like having another adult in the room.
• Set up team activities to get them thinking again and to put a competitive edge back in. During lockdown, we’ve all done online or virtual quizzes and games which can easily be transferred into the classroom.

Developing a Growth Mindset

More than ever, children are going to need to be encouraged to develop a Growth Mindset (search ‘Carol Dweck’).

To start to shift them from their comfort zone, set up fun activities. For example, try asking them to draw the teacher’s face without looking at their paper. Then talk about how that felt.

• Was anyone’s first thought, ‘Oh no! I can’t draw?’ If so, what can they do to improve? Here, stress the importance of being resilient, practising and having a ‘can-do’ attitude.
• Were they happier when they knew that no-one else was allowed to look at the paper, meaning everyone else's was likely to be a bit rubbish? Ask the children if they think it helps to compare ourselves to other people? How about trying to set personal bests and targets instead? If they do want to draw as well as a classmate, what can they learn from them?
• How easy was it not to peep? Explain that it felt uncomfortable because we’re so used to looking at the paper when we draw. If we always feel comfortable then we aren’t going to learn as much. With the portrait today, what was the worst that happened? The teacher’s nose was as big as her head, and she didn’t have any teeth. But she’s not offended – honest!

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Life is slowly returning to ‘normal’ and schools are making plans to reopen for more pupils soon. In order to maintain kids’ good mental health and wellbeing during the transition period, and beyond:

• Now’s the time to ensure they understand why routines have been so different over the past few weeks.
• They need to know what the adults are going to do to help them to be school-ready again.
• They also need to be able to tell the difference, once more, between school and home.
  
  

Establishing new routines

It’s likely that, for the rest of the academic year at least, school life will be very different for the children. They may be at school for part of the week, in smaller groups and possibly not with their usual teacher. Once you know the plans:

• Create a weekly timetable with your child, so that they know what’s happening and when. Make the distinction between school days, home learning days and family days clear.
• If they haven’t got their own teacher when they return, make sure they understand that he/she still very much cares about them, they’ll still be setting the work and checking in on them, from a distance.
• Chat through all of the exciting opportunities of having someone else teach them for a few weeks – maybe it’s a teacher they’ve had before? Or one their brother or sister knows well?
• Talk about their new class, the friends that they have in it and all of the learning and safety benefits of being in a smaller ‘bubble’.

Rethinking previous routines

• If they’re sad that certain people aren’t in their bubble, make sure that they understand how they can still be friends across the playground. While We Can't Hug is a great film, which will help young children to reconnect from a distance.
• If you usually walk to or from school with another family, then start doing this again. Maybe they can’t zoom off on their scooters together, but they can chat over the road from one pavement to another.
• And, until we can safely be in each other’s houses again, make sure they’re getting plenty of virtual play dates. Adults’ and children’s conversations might have been a bit ‘samey’ during lockdown but, once they’re back at school, there should be lots more to chat about.

Re-establishing old, helpful routines

Pre-Corona, we all know how tricky it was to return to school or work after a couple of weeks’ holiday. To support children to readjust:

• Help them to be in the right frame of mind for school days. The night before, lay out their uniform and get them to help pack their lunchbox (with at least one treat).
• Reintroduce a consistent bedtime and early morning routine during the week.
• Encourage greater independence – in learning and self-care skills. For example, remind them of the hand washing rules and make sure that, out of habit, they are singing Happy Birthday twice while washing.
• Help them to start concentrating for longer periods of time by themselves. A sand timer is a good visual cue for younger children. Older children could set an alarm, though it’s better if it’s not on their phone.
• Gradually start to remove that mortarboard and cape. It suited you – it really did! But, hopefully, you won’t be needing it for too much longer.

Do

We’re thinking about growth mindset this week, so let’s look at what our ambitions are. What do we really want to be able to do? What are the steps that we need to take in order to achieve our ambitions?

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Why not get the children to make their own coping cube in their first week back at school? With lots of positive phrases, it'll remind them of the importance of having a Growth Mindset and using positive, 'can-do' language.

Coming up next week we look into practical ways that workplaces can continue the conversation around mental health, as well as activities to support mental wellbeing.