Lessons, courses and interventions for whole-school wellbeing
Browse classroom-ready resources from trusted providers. Filter by curriculum, year group, and module to find the right lesson or course for your setting.
96 lessons
Browse classroom-ready Healthy Minds content.
Resilience & Harnessing Positive Emotions
This foundational lesson introduces students to the concept of mental resilience and explores how positive emotions can be cultivated and used as a resource. Students learn what resilience means, why it matters, and how emotions — particularly positive ones — play a crucial role in building mental strength and wellbeing.
Connecting the Brain, Emotions & Thoughts
Students explore the relationship between the brain, emotions, and thinking patterns. This lesson demystifies how the brain processes emotional experiences and how our thoughts are deeply intertwined with how we feel, helping students understand the science behind their emotional responses.
Introducing Gremlin Beliefs
This lesson introduces the concept of 'Gremlin Beliefs' — the unhelpful, often automatic negative thoughts and beliefs that undermine confidence and resilience. Students learn to identify their own gremlins and understand how these beliefs can hold them back, as a first step towards challenging them.
Optimism & Evidence
Building on the gremlin beliefs lesson, this session introduces optimism as a learnable skill. Students discover how to use evidence-based thinking to challenge negative thought patterns and cultivate a more balanced, optimistic outlook — not toxic positivity, but realistic, grounded hope.
WoBbLe
WoBbLe is a memorable framework that helps students understand that life's ups and downs are normal and manageable. This lesson teaches students to embrace wobbles as part of growth and to use the WoBbLe model as a practical tool for maintaining balance during challenging times.
Resilience Planning
The culminating lesson of the Teach Mental Resilience course, this session brings together everything students have learned to create a personal Resilience Plan. Students reflect on their journey through the course and build a practical, personalised toolkit for maintaining and growing their resilience going forward.
Resilience & Harnessing Positive Emotions
This is the opening lesson of the Healthy Minds Foundation module. It introduces students to the concept of resilience, the skills that help us navigate the inevitable ups and downs of life.
Connecting the Brain, Emotions & Thoughts
Students explore the neuroscience behind why we react the way we do. The lesson introduces a simple three-part model of the brain (Primitive, Feeling, Thinking) and explains how emotions and thoughts are connected.
Introducing Gremlin Beliefs
Building on the ABC framework from Lesson 2, this lesson introduces the concept of Gremlin Beliefs — four types of common unhelpful thinking patterns that distort how we see situations and drive negative emotions and behaviours. Students learn to identify these gremlins in scenarios and practise replacing them with more accurate, flexible thinking.
Optimism & Evidence
This lesson teaches students to challenge Gremlin Beliefs by seeking evidence and thinking flexibly. Using an optical illusion, opinion-line debates, and a story (Mia and Ava at the arcade), students discover the difference between optimistic and pessimistic thinking, and learn that our brains can tell inaccurate stories when they lack evidence.
WoBbLe: Taming the Catastrophising Gremlin
This lesson focuses specifically on the Catastrophising Gremlin Belief — the tendency to snowball a small problem into a catastrophic chain of disasters in our mind. Students are introduced to the WoBbLe skill (Worst case → Best case → Most Likely), a structured thinking technique to bring balance to runaway catastrophic thoughts.
Resilience Planning
This is the final lesson of the Foundation module — a consolidation and celebration lesson. Students revisit all five resilience skills taught across the module through a structured review quiz, then create their own individual Resilience Plan that captures what they have learnt and how they will apply it in their lives.
Introduction to Intentional Stillness
This is the introductory lesson of the Intentional Stillness module. It establishes what "intentional stillness" means — paying deliberate, purposeful attention to the present moment — and introduces the three types of intentional stillness practice: Bodily, Connection, and Cognitive.
Intentional Stillness & Anxiety
This lesson explores the link between intentional stillness and managing anxiety. Students learn about the brain's anxiety response (the amygdala), use the metaphor of a stress/anxiety bucket to understand what fills and empties their personal anxiety, and practise three forms of intentional stillness.
Intentional Stillness & Sleep
This lesson explores the specific link between intentional stillness and sleep quality. Students learn why sleep is especially important for teenagers, discuss recommended sleep hours and the consequences of sleep deprivation, and practise intentional stillness techniques designed to prepare the mind and body for rest.
Connecting to Others
The final lesson of the Intentional Stillness module explores the deep link between human connection and mental health. Students learn about the social brain (specifically the insula) and how our connections with others influence our feelings and behaviours.
Introduction to Media Literacy & Social Media
This is the first lesson of the Social Media Investigated: Media Navigator module — a media literacy programme for Year 7. The lesson establishes a Safe Learning Agreement, introduces the concept of media literacy (access, analyse, create), and gives students practical experience deconstructing an advertisement (Kia Exercising Hamsters) to identify text, subtext, and target audience.
Fantasy & Reality
This lesson explores how media blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Students deconstruct a Lego advertisement for fantasy elements, analyse the McDonald's Big Mac Makeover video to understand how food advertising manipulates reality, examine the nature of reality television using The Biggest Loser as a case study, and begin exploring what it means to set boundaries online.
Advantages, Disadvantages & Boundary Setting
This lesson builds on the boundary-setting discussion from Lesson 2 and extends it into a structured exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of social media. Students collaborate to generate their own advantages/disadvantages list, discuss whether social media turns people into performers, and work in small groups on a Social Media Scenarios activity — arranging scenario cards from most positive to most negative and discussing what boundaries would keep people safe.
Benefits of Social Media
This lesson takes a deliberately positive starting point: research shows that beginning with benefits rather than drawbacks opens minds more creatively and leads to more lasting learning. Students explore how social media enhances communication, watch and analyse two videos ("I Forgot My Phone" and "Taking Control of the Trolls"), and work in small groups to create their own personal guidelines for using social media positively.
Creating Identity Maps
This lesson and the following one form a two-part project focused on students reflecting on the online identity they want for themselves. The aim is not to have students carve out their online identity now, but to go through a thoughtful process of considering it alongside their peers.
Presenting Identity Maps
This is the final lesson of the Media Navigator module and of the full Healthy Minds Year 7 programme. The classroom is transformed into a social media platform: students display their identity maps on the walls or tables, rotate around the room to view each other's maps and leave written comments (non-anonymously), then return to read comments on their own map.
Revisit the Skills of Resilience
Recap of the five resilience skills (Harnessing Emotions, Noticing Gremlins, Reframing, Moving On, WoBbLe) with a focus on when and how to apply them in real-life situations.
Optimistic Thinking
Explores pessimistic thinking patterns and how to replace them with flexible, realistic alternatives using the ABC model and Optimistic Alternatives Worksheet.
WoBbLe Review
Reinforces the WoBbLe skill (Worst/Best/Most Likely case) to tame Catastrophising Gremlin Beliefs. Covers when WoBbLe is appropriate and introduces emergency response skills (999, recovery position).
Assertive Communication
Introduces the four communication styles and a four-step Assertive Communication Technique. Students practise in pairs using real-life activating event scenarios.
Moving On Skill
Introduces Confirmation Bias and how brains filter information to confirm existing beliefs. Students practise selecting the right resilience skill for different everyday situations.
Empathy and Resilience Planning
Final lesson focusing on empathy vs sympathy, resilience mind-mapping, and consolidating all five resilience skills. Students create personal resilience plans.
Being Part of a Group and My Adult Self
Opening lesson building class rapport through group tasks. Students select images representing the adult they want to be across four life domains: work, family, lifestyle, and community.
Positive and Negative Role Models
Students identify positive and negative role models across the four adult domains and explore how these influences shape future success. Introduces the Future Me worksheet.
Bucket List and Timelines
Students create personal wishlist bucket lists then begin personal future timelines, identifying forks in the road, obstacles, and roadblocks between present day and adult goals.
Timelines Continued
Students complete and share personal timelines in small groups. Discussion draws out themes around planning, getting information, and breaking future goals into manageable steps.
Actions
Distinguishes dreams from possible selves and introduces specific action-setting. Students write clear, time-bound actions for each adult life domain linked to their timeline goals.
Possible Selves
Students create poster boards visualising their next-year positive and negative possible selves, then select strategies and actions to reach positive outcomes and avoid negative ones.
Adult Possible Selves
Extends possible selves thinking to the long-term adult future. Students complete the adult side of their poster board, connecting present actions to adult aspirations.
Solving Everyday Problems
Introduces structured problem-solving for everyday school-related challenges. Students apply resilience skills to real problems, recognising that seeking help promptly is a strength.
Looking Forward
Final From School to Life lesson connecting present choices to future goals. Students reflect on how resilience skills, role models, timelines, and actions work together to support their futures.
Introduction to Media Influences
Introductory lesson revisiting media literacy and setting context for Media Influences. Covers advances in social media, text vs subtext, and prepares students for critical analysis of gender, body image, health, and decision-making.
Media Gender Constructions
Examines how media constructs gender stereotypes. Students deconstruct adverts to identify target marketing, gender bias, and the influence of legislation on media representation.
Media and Body Image
Explores how media promotes unrealistic body ideals. Deconstructs fashion and fitness advertising, addresses body shaming, and develops body-positive, health-focused responses.
Media, Health and Food Marketing
Compares food product marketing against actual nutritional value. Students examine food targeting strategies, barriers to accessing healthy food, and structural issues in public health.
Media, Health, and the Marketing of Addiction
Investigates gambling product marketing and the links between gaming mechanics and addiction. Features a team quiz and scenario-based group discussion on gambling awareness.
Media and Decision Making
Examines how media directly influences consumer and personal decision-making. Students analyse persuasion techniques, build a media log, and develop strategies for more conscious decision-making.
Creating Media
Students design and create their own counter-adverts challenging a deceptive or harmful media message. Covers counter advertising concepts, deconstruction examples, and practical campaign production.
Presenting Media: My Counter Advert
Final lesson where students present their counter-adverts to the class. Discussion reflects on the full Media Influences module and how critical media literacy applies beyond school.
Exercise and Mental Health
This opening lesson of the Physical Resilience module developed with the Harry Kane Foundation. The resource explores the direct link between physical exercise and mental health. Students revisit the resilience skills from Year 7 (positive emotion, ABC, Gremlin Beliefs) and apply them specifically to their beliefs about physical activity. The lesson uses Harry Kane as a relatable ambassador and challenges students to identify and reframe unhelpful thinking patterns about exercise.
Nutrition and Mental Health
This lesson explores the growing evidence base for the link between what we eat and our mental health. Students learn about the gut-brain axis, the role of different food groups, and the barriers that prevent young people from eating well. Using Harry Kane as a relatable case study, they examine how nutrition choices directly impact physical and mental performance, then create a collaborative Mental Strength Nutrition Charter.
Sleep and the Adolescent Brain
This lesson explores why sleep is essential for adolescent mental and physical health. Students learn about the science of sleep — including the circadian rhythm, melatonin, Non-REM and REM sleep stages — and hear from both Harry Kane and Dr John Coleman (clinical psychologist and adolescence expert) on why sleep matters. The lesson culminates in students reflecting honestly on their own sleep routines and beginning a sleep diary.
Facts and Common Beliefs About Sleep
Building directly on Lesson 3, this lesson goes deeper into the science of teen sleep, the real impact of sleep deprivation, and — crucially — the common unhelpful beliefs that prevent young people from prioritising sleep. Students watch a second Dr John Coleman video, generate a class list of sleep myths, then use the reframing technique (linking back to Gremlin Beliefs and flexible thinking from Year 7) to challenge and replace those beliefs with more accurate alternatives.
Sleep Routines
The final lesson of the Physical Resilience module moves from understanding sleep science to taking practical action. Students watch Dr John Coleman's third video on sleep routines and how to overcome the melatonin effect, build a class list of healthy sleep routines, and create their own personalised sleep diary. The session closes with a final word from Harry Kane and a signpost to the National Sleep Helpline.
Defining Mental Health
The opening lesson of the Mental Illness Investigated series sets the foundation for a sensitive and rigorous seven-lesson exploration of mental health and mental illness. Students establish where to get support, build their initial understanding of what mental health means, draw parallels with physical health, and explore the idea that mental health exists on a spectrum that everyone moves along throughout their lives.
The Science of Mental Illness
This lesson explores the biological and neurological basis of mental illness. Using a multi-section video ("Understanding the Biology of Mental Illness"), students learn about neurons, brain function, and how disruptions in brain networks and neurochemical messengers underpin mental ill health. PET scan evidence is introduced to show that mental illness produces observable physical changes in the brain — directly challenging the idea that it is "all in the mind".
Understanding Mental Illness
This lesson moves from brain science to the lived experience of mental illness. Students explore the four most prevalent mental health conditions affecting young people — anxiety, depression, self-harm, and eating disorders — through a structured group research and presentation activity. Each group develops a character's diary entry to explore the real day-to-day impact of their assigned condition, then presents their findings to the class.
Triggers, Protective Factors & Promoting Wellbeing
This lesson focuses on why mental illness develops — the triggers and risk factors — and, equally importantly, the protective factors and intentional actions that promote wellbeing. Students sort mental health fact-or-fiction cards, explore the Five Ways to Wellbeing, and challenge common myths and misconceptions. The lesson reinforces that looking after mental wellbeing is as intentional and important as looking after physical health.
Mental Illness — Spotting & Supporting
This lesson equips students with the practical skills to recognise early warning signs of mental illness in others, initiate supportive conversations, and signpost to appropriate help. Through the Mental Health Support MindMap, a Recognise the Warning Signs worksheet, the What Next worksheet, and real quotes from young people on how to talk to a friend, students build both the knowledge and the confidence to respond when someone they care about may be struggling.
Healthy Coping Strategies
This lesson explores the range of ways people respond to difficult situations, thoughts, and feelings — distinguishing healthy from unhealthy coping mechanisms. Through the Healthy Coping Toolbox activity, paired case studies featuring three young people (Andi, Goldin, and Zane), and a personalised "Ideas to Try" worksheet, students build a practical toolkit of strategies to manage their own mental health and support others. The lesson reinforces that coping strategies are personal and that what works for one person may not work for another.
Reducing Mental Health Stigma
The final lesson of the Mental Illness Investigated series addresses one of the most significant barriers to young people seeking help: stigma. Using an "alien" thought experiment to define stigma, two short videos (one humorous, one featuring young people sharing real experiences), and group work drawing on the See Me campaign's ideas for challenging stigma, students create a Class Charter of five commitments to reduce mental health stigma in their school community. The lesson closes with a Looking Back & Forwards reflection on the full seven-lesson series.
Resilient Relationships - Introduction
The opening lesson of the Resilient Relationships series reconnects students with the core Resilience Skills from earlier modules and applies them to relationships for the first time. Students revisit the ABC model (Activating event–Beliefs–Consequences) in the context of relationships, explore the full spectrum of relationship types, distinguish healthy from unhealthy relationships, examine the beliefs that help and hinder them, and build their understanding of healthy relationship foundations through a relationship triangle model. The lesson also covers the role of sex in relationships and the importance of building strong foundations before deepening connection.
Healthy Boundaries
This lesson explores what healthy relationship boundaries are, why they matter, and how to set and communicate them assertively. Using the "Smart Love" framework, relationship scenarios, and the assertive communication technique revisited from Year 8, students practise boundary-setting conversations — including how to end a romantic relationship. The lesson also addresses toxic and abusive relationships, warning signs to watch for, and where to seek help if someone feels unsafe.
Relationship Characteristics and Parental Responsibility
This lesson broadens the focus from romantic relationships to the responsibilities that come with parenthood, and deepens students' understanding of consent. A structured debate on common consent myths opens the lesson before students complete a relationship-type quiz. The lesson then shifts to parental responsibility — legal, emotional, and financial — culminating in a group activity where students consider everything that needs to be in place before bringing a child into the world.
Big Sticky Beliefs and Relationships
This lesson introduces Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) — the deep, often invisible assumptions people hold about how the world should be — and explores how they differ from the situation-specific Gremlin Beliefs studied in earlier modules. Through the ABC model, case studies (Hannah, Jenny, and the recurring character Dennis), and reflective pair work, students learn to recognise when an overreaction in a relationship is being driven by an underlying BSB, and begin exploring their own world-view beliefs.
Identifying Big Sticky Beliefs
Building on the introduction to Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) from Lesson 4, this lesson equips students with a practical technique - "what" questions, for identifying BSBs in themselves and others. Students begin with a relaxing music exercise, then explore their own world-view through anonymous sentence completions. Using the Bodhi case study and a set of "what" question prompts, pairs practise drawing out BSBs, before the lesson closes with personal reflection on times they have overreacted and what underlying BSBs might have driven those reactions.
BSBs and Human Connections
This lesson deepens students' understanding of Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) by showing how they drive out-of-proportion reactions in real relationship situations, and then teaches students how to modify or challenge unhelpful BSBs. Through a Take 5 breathing exercise, short drama performances based on three relationship Activating Events, and guided evidence-checking using Lucas as a worked example, students practise noticing when a BSB is "in play" and reworking their ABC to reach a more helpful response.
BSBs and Planning for the Future
The final lesson of the Resilient Relationships series brings together everything students have learned about Big Sticky Beliefs and resilience skills, and projects them forward into the future. Using the Lucas example as a bridge from the previous lesson, students consider how the BSBs they hold now could shape their lives in ten years' time, create a personal Resilience Plan, and reflect on the lasting benefits of the resilience skills for their relationships and wellbeing.
Ambiguity, Complexity and Independent Thinking
The opening lesson of the Resilient Decisions series introduces students to decision-making in the context of ambiguity — situations where there is no clearly "right" answer. Through a drawing activity with a surprise marking scheme, personal dilemmas in pairs, and group dilemma discussions, students experience first-hand the discomfort of uncertainty and begin exploring how resilience skills can help them navigate it. The lesson closes with a breathing exercise using Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" to illustrate that all choices carry uncertainty.
Assessing Risk and Opportunity
This lesson applies the ABC model directly to risk and opportunity scenarios, showing how Gremlin Beliefs can lead to poor decisions in both directions — giving in to peer pressure on risk, or backing away from genuine opportunity. Students learn the "Hot Seat" technique for disputing Gremlin Beliefs in the moment, and explore how peer influence — positive and negative — shapes real-life decision-making.
Assertive Communication and Decision Making
This lesson returns to the assertive communication technique and extends it into the context of decision-making and negotiation. A morally complex friendship dilemma is explored through "Conscience Alley" — a physical drama activity where the class line up as pros and cons while one student walks between them as the protagonist. Students then practise assertive communication, negotiation, and empathy in small-group role plays, learning to communicate difficult decisions effectively even when others disagree.
Decision Making in Romantic Relationships
This lesson applies the resilience skills to decisions specifically within romantic relationships, including sex and relationship safety. A Yes/No/Not Sure team debate on nine morally complex statements opens the conversation, before the ABC model is used to show how Beliefs drive decisions in potentially unsafe relationship situations. Students explore the beliefs that might lead someone toward or away from having sex, and the lesson closes with clear information on the forms of relationship abuse and where to seek help.
Reviewing How We Make Decisions
The final lesson of the Resilient Decisions series consolidates everything students have learned through a creative group challenge: designing and pitching a "Decision Making App" for teenagers. This playful, competitive activity requires each group to draw on the full range of resilience skills covered across the series and articulate them in a two-minute pitch to the class. The lesson closes by summarising the five core benefits of resilience for decision-making.
Barriers to Success
The opening lesson of the Resilient Learner series applies the resilience skills to the experience of studying and exams. Students map their personal learning journey on a timeline, identifying highs and lows, what enables them to perform at their best, and the beliefs that helped or hindered them. The ABC model is briefly revisited through a relatable exam scenario to reconnect students with the link between thinking, feeling, and behaviour in an academic context.
Learning Priority and Strategies
This lesson helps students identify their personal strengths and weaknesses across four key learning capabilities, then learn from each other through a structured peer-teaching carousel. By self-assessing their confidence in Perseverance, Getting Going, Keeping It in Perspective, and Moving Forward, students group themselves by their strongest capability and take turns both teaching and learning from their peers, exploring the Beliefs that underpin each capability.
Learning Mindsets
This lesson introduces Carol Dweck's fixed versus growth mindset theory and frames it within the resilience skills language students already know (mindsets as clusters of Big Sticky Beliefs). Students explore their beliefs about intelligence through an Agree/Disagree scale, a mindset grid activity, paired role-playing of fixed and growth mindset responses, a short video about brain plasticity, and a group evidence-gathering exercise — building a compelling case for why a growth mindset is more helpful for learning.
Dealing with Anxiety
This lesson focuses specifically on how anxiety interferes with learning and exam performance, and reinforces two key tools for managing it: calming and focusing techniques (harnessing emotions) and WoBbLe (taming catastrophising Gremlin Beliefs). Through an ABC worked example where the Consequence is given first, students identify what Activating Events and Beliefs might be driving exam-related anxiety, then practise WoBbLe on three real exam-pressure scenarios.
Action Planning
This lesson brings together all four Learning Action Plans completed across the series and consolidates the skills into a personal forward-planning document. Students first practise using the skills "in the moment" through the Hot Seat activity with an exam-day social stressor scenario, then write a detailed personal plan covering Gremlin Beliefs, learning capabilities, strategies, support networks, and self-reward. The lesson closes with a Q&A opportunity and a summary of the five core benefits of resilience for learning.
Emotions, Energy and Performance
This lesson introduces the Emotions, Energy and Performance model from sports psychology — a four-quadrant grid (positive/negative emotion × high/low energy) that maps emotional states to performance zones: Thriving, Survival, Burnout, and Recovery. Students explore where their emotions currently sit, what beliefs keep them from prioritising recovery, and what practical actions they can take to achieve the right personal ratio of high performance and effective recovery — particularly in the lead-up to exams. The Five Ways to Wellbeing are revisited as a source of recovery ideas.
Strengths
The final lesson of the Resilient Learner series — and of the complete Healthy Minds curriculum — draws on the work of the VIA Institute on Character to help students identify and articulate their personal strengths. Through a focused listening exercise, a strengths card exploration, a small-group presentation, and a discussion connecting strengths to the Energy and Performance grid, students leave with a clearer sense of who they are at their best and how to use their strengths intentionally going forward. The lesson closes by encouraging students to use their strengths to write a personal statement for life beyond Year 11.
Introduction to Media Literacy and Social Media
This opening lesson sets the stage for the Media Navigated course by introducing students to the concept of media literacy and examining the role social media plays in their lives. Students explore what it means to be a critical and informed media consumer in the modern digital landscape.
Fantasy and Reality
Students investigate the gap between curated online personas and real life. This lesson explores how social media often presents an idealised version of reality and helps students develop the critical thinking skills to distinguish between fantasy and reality in digital content.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Platforms
A balanced and nuanced exploration of social media's benefits and drawbacks. Students critically examine both the positive opportunities and the potential harms of different social platforms, building the knowledge base to make more informed choices about their own digital engagement.
Benefits of Social Platforms
Diving deeper into the positive side of social media, this lesson helps students recognise and leverage the genuine benefits of digital platforms — from building communities and accessing information to creative expression and social activism. Students learn how to use platforms intentionally and positively.
Creating Identity Maps
Students engage in a creative and reflective activity to map their online and offline identities. This lesson helps young people understand how their sense of self is constructed and how their digital presence relates to (and sometimes differs from) their authentic identity.
Presenting Online Identity Maps
The culminating lesson of the Media Navigated course, where students present and share their identity maps. This collaborative session allows students to discuss their digital identities, learn from each other's perspectives, and consolidate their media literacy skills.
What is Intentional Stillness
The introductory lesson for the Intentional Stillness course explores the concept of stillness as a deliberate, purposeful practice rather than simply the absence of activity. Students discover why intentional stillness matters in today's fast-paced, always-on world and are introduced to foundational mindfulness concepts.
The Brain and Intentional Stillness
Students explore the neuroscience behind stillness and mindfulness. This lesson explains how intentional stillness affects the brain — from reducing stress hormone levels to strengthening neural pathways associated with focus, emotional regulation, and wellbeing — giving students a scientific foundation for the practice.
Extending Intentional Stillness
Building on the foundational practices, this lesson helps students develop and deepen their stillness practice. Students explore a range of techniques and learn how to extend moments of stillness throughout their day, making it a sustainable and integrated part of their routine.
Using Intentional Stillness to Deal with Anxiety
This lesson applies intentional stillness specifically to anxiety management. Students learn how anxiety manifests in the body and mind, and how stillness practices can be used as an immediate and longer-term tool for reducing anxiety and building emotional resilience.
Understanding My Stress Bucket
Using the 'stress bucket' metaphor, students visualise how stress accumulates and how different coping strategies — including intentional stillness — can help to manage and drain their bucket before it overflows. This lesson makes abstract stress concepts concrete and actionable.
Using Intentional Stillness to Aid Sleep
Students explore the connection between stillness, relaxation, and sleep quality. This lesson provides evidence-based strategies for using intentional stillness to improve sleep hygiene, helping students understand why good sleep is fundamental to mental health and how to create better pre-sleep routines.
Exploring Sleep Routines
Extending the sleep theme, this lesson dives deeper into the science and practice of healthy sleep routines. Students audit their current sleep habits, learn about circadian rhythms, and develop concrete plans for improving their sleep through intentional stillness and better sleep hygiene.
Connecting to Others
This lesson explores the social dimension of wellbeing, examining how our connections with others affect our mental health and how intentional stillness can improve the quality of our relationships. Students discover how being truly present transforms interactions and deepens connection.
The Social Brain & Gratitude
The final lesson of the Intentional Stillness course brings together the social and neurological themes of the programme. Students explore the neuroscience of gratitude, learning how practising gratitude activates positive brain circuits and enhances social bonds — leaving them with a powerful, evidence-based tool for lasting wellbeing.
Life is a Journey
The opening lesson introduces the Resilient Transitions series, framing change as a journey worth preparing for. Students discuss what 'life is a journey' means, establish a Safe Learning Agreement, share positive things about moving on, and explore emotions linked to uncertainty. They are introduced to Finger Breathing as a calming strategy and create a personal 'safe space' drawing as a grounding resource.
Thoughts and Feelings
Students are introduced to fictional characters Tia and Tomas and the ABC model (Activating Events, Beliefs, Consequences), which explains how Beliefs — not events themselves — drive feelings and behaviour. Students apply ABC to scenarios and learn to identify three Gremlin belief types: Me (self-blame), Them (externalising blame), and Always (catastrophising). A focused maze activity develops the skill of deliberately directing attention.
Making Choices
Building on the ABC model, students explore how thinking style shapes choices. They revisit Tia and Tomas to find Gremlin Beliefs, compare pessimism and optimism, and watch an Observation Test film to show how we can miss things. A 'Being a Detective' technique teaches students to seek multiple explanations for events rather than defaulting to Gremlin thinking. Students practise reframing Gremlin Beliefs with worksheets and close with visualised breathing.
Taking Control
Students learn three tools for taking control during change: a gratitude letter to strengthen relationships; the WoBbLe skill, which balances catastrophic worst-case thinking with best-case and most-likely-case outcomes; and a visualisation exercise to calm strong emotions from a distance. The lesson closes with the Five Ways to Wellbeing (Connect, Be Active, Keep Learning, Take Notice, Give), and students make a personal pledge to use them.
Making My Transition Plan
The final lesson consolidates all series learning. Students unpack what resilience means and connect these qualities to their upcoming school transition. A 'Me at My Best' activity builds positive self-concept, followed by imagining a positive future in their new school. Each student creates a personal Transition Plan drawing on all tools from the series - calming techniques, ABC thinking, Gremlin reframing, WoBbLe, gratitude, and the Five Ways to Wellbeing.