Mental health assemblies being used to educate children on coping with anxiety and depression

Two primary school teachers from the North West have quit their jobs to launch what could become a revolutionary new service to help children, teachers and parents spot, and cope with, the signs of mental illness.

Gemma and Liz, who both worked in Bolton, left their teaching roles to launch 'Grow Your Mindset', after realising so many of their pupils struggled with feelings of failure and inadequacy.

They wanted to educate and train children to be able to handle criticism, making mistakes and set backs and to prevent the onset of mental health problems including anxiety and depression.

They now visit schools, businesses and workplaces to train people on positive mindset thinking to encourage them reevaluate the way they look at their lives.

Gemma said:

"In our own classrooms, mental health was dealt with as and when it happened. But with Growth Mindset, if you give children the tools they need to grow and develop, then these mental health symptoms are greatly reduced in life."

Liz dealt with a number of complex children in her time as a teacher:

"I've had children in classes who either cry when they make a mistake, or physically hit themselves if they make a mistake. You can see them getting worked up. That sort of behaviour is, as a teacher, really worrying. It's about developing that mindset so that they can avoid that reaction when they do make a mistake.

"We ant to help the children that often fear making mistakes, the children that don't challenge themselves because they're scared of failure and their friends will laugh at them. It's those children that, over time, that inner voice can affect their learning. It's not a quick fix, it's not something they do on Monday and they've got it on Friday, it can take months and months.

"You might have a classroom culture where mistakes are brilliant and they're an opportunity to learn, if they then go home and parents ask why they made a mistake, then they see it as a bad thing rather than a learning experience."

To find out more about the scheme, visit: https://www.growyourmindset.co.uk/