An assembly to last approximately 15-20 minutes on mental awareness. The ‘way in’ is via a focus on loneliness, which was the theme of 2022’s Mental Health Awareness Week. However, this could be changed according to your specidic requirements. The format is designed to allow for two pupil volunteers to assist but this could be changed to allow for one single presenter. The assembly includes a story ‘Lionel the Lonely Monster’ and an introduction to the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.

An assembly that I used during an assessment day for an deputy head position (I got the job!) This is a presentation with some embedded videos (links to YouTube - please check that they work with your school’s firewall/intranet before using) that starts with the famous ‘marshmallow test’ before exploring the life stories of three very different ‘geniuses’ (Einstein, Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs) and relating their successes and struggles to the growth mindset. Pupils are then confronted with three scenarios and asked to think what a person with a growth mindset would do and what a person with a fixed mindset would do in each of them.

A lesson for Y5/6 that takes some of the themes of the final sections of The Journey , e.g refugees arriving in a new and strange country, and uses them as the inspiration for writing haikus. The lesson begins with a ‘diamond 9’ activity to get children discussing the feelings that a refugee finally stepping into safety might experience. There is then a brief recap on syllables using a fun paired game. Pupils are then introduced to haiku as a form and, through good and ‘not so good’ examples, draw out the success criteria themselves. For teachers less confident with spontaneous shared writing, there is a ‘crib sheet’ with key questions and ‘think out loud’ points. For the independent activity, pupils can select an image to write a haiku about and the help sheet has examples for each image which pupils can use to base theirs on if needed.

A PSHE lesson suited to most primary year groups on talking about our achievements and goals. This could also be used as an assembly presentation if you take out the slide with instructions for the task.

A complete PSHE lesson lasting 30-45 mins for Y3/4 on the importance of oral hygeine. The slides explain how ‘Toothless Tom’ and ‘Peraly White Paul’ (resemblance to Joey Essex is purely incidental!) came to have teeth that look the way that they do. Pupils than work in pairs/groups to answer the differentiated questions on post-its that can be attached to the images.

A complete lesson for any primary age group about the importance of mental health. The lesson introduces the concept of mental health and then introduces pupils to the idea of mindfulness and how it can help to refocus our thoughts and feelings and leave us calmer and more content. There are two main activities: one a ‘meditation’, during which the teacher tells a short story and the children follow the instructions in the narrative to control and slow their breathing. Following this, the independent activity is a choice of mindfulness colouring activities.