Heads Up Kids

What is Heads Up Kids?

Heads Up Kids is a social and emotional wellbeing programme for the whole class, run by the class teacher.

These preventative sessions promote class cohesion, emotional literacy and resiliency. The programme also develops teachers understanding of their children’s social and emotional needs.

It is primarily aimed at children in year 3 but is also used with year 4-6 classes, particularly those experiencing difficulties with class cohesion and troublesome group dynamics including friendship and bullying issues.

What are the benefits?

Our overall aim is to create an emotional language in the classroom. That means, not only improving emotional vocabulary but also increasing children’s confidence to speak about and explore emotional material such as friendships and managing strong feelings.

We believe that in a classroom where children have the words to express their feelings and feel confident to do so, that those children will be more resilient, more able to solve problems, have more empathy for others and be better able to work collaboratively.

A key outcome of the programme is that the skills that teachers and children begin to develop are not just confined to the sessions but make an ongoing difference to all areas of school life.

How does it work?

Teachers receive a one-day training to deliver the 8 week programme and follow-up circle time sessions. They then receive ongoing supervision for the remainder of the academic year.

The training and supervision process provides teachers with an understanding of the social and emotional needs of their class and offers a rare reflective space where we think about how the children are working with the programme.

The programme is evaluated using a number of measurable outcomes and the school receives a written report at the end of the process.

The Outcomes

For children

• Increased cohesiveness within the class
• Increased collaboration among the children
• Increased understanding and knowledge of bullying
• Increased ability to work out difficulties between peers without teacher intervention
• Increased ability to reflect on emotions and appropriate responses
• Greater appreciation of the class group as a community
• Builds emotional resiliency in the classroom and playground

For schools

• Gives children the opportunity to think about their feelings and how they feel about themselves
• Gives children the opportunity to explore their friendships and consider how they interact and communicate with others
• Enhances childrens’ social skills and help them manage difficult peer relationships, including bullying
• Builds emotional resiliency in the classroom and playground
• Boosts childrens’ confidence and self-esteem
• Helps children work collaboratively
• Equips teachers to run the eight-week programme
• Helps teachers address issues such as friendships, social skills, bullying and emotional resiliency
• Enhances teachers’ understanding of children’s emotional development and the theories underpinning this
• Provides a reflective space for teachers to consider the emotional needs of the children in their class

Find out more

Heads Up Kids have partnered with Norwood and PaJes to deliver this programme to Jewish Primary Schools.

For further information, please contact us on 020 8809 8809 or complete the form and we will reply to your enquiry.