Further resources:

• Now and Beyond is a mental health and wellbeing festival for educational settings. Founded by youth mental health charity Beyond, the festival offers a programme of live online events for teachers and pupils as well as access to teaching resources and a directory of youth mental health and wellbeing experts. Now and Beyond 2024 will take place on 7th February 2024.
• The National Literacy Trust produced a series of daily writing prompts for KS1, KS2 and KS3 pupils for Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 to encourage young people to explore their emotions and write for wellbeing.  You can also download assembly presentations for primary and secondary schools that highlight the relationship between reading, writing and wellbeing. All website resources available with the NLT’s free membership.
• Watch an interview with Dr Alex George, Government Mental Health Adviser and author of award-winning children’s non-fiction book A Better Day, as he talks about his own lived experiences and shares some tops tips for good mental health on the Read for Good website.
• BookTrust has compiled lists of recommended titles for all ages that explore issues of mental health and emotional literacy.
• Books for Topics has recommended booklists to support mental health for primary aged children.
• The Reading Well Programme provides booklists that help young people of all ages understand and manage their mental wellbeing.
• Take a look at the mental health and wellbeing book packs for KS1 and KS2 from Best Books for Schools.
• LoveReading4Kids has produced a list of titles that can help children and young people understand their emotions and cope with feelings of anxiety.
• The What’s Up with Everyone campaign is designed to increase mental health literacy in young people. It provides a series of animated stories with a companion website covering topics such as Perfectionism, Loneliness and Social Media.
• Beano for Schools in partnership with Young Minds has created a series of six lesson plans featuring favourite Beano characters to help children understand their emotions and mental health better. The lesson plans include a short animation, PowerPoint presentation and activity sheets. There are versions for KS1 and KS2 and everything is linked to the PSHE curriculums in England, Scotland and Wales.
• The Wellbeing Wednesday teaching schemes are fully resourced wellbeing teaching programmes designed to cover a term’s learning for primary schools.
• Capture and track pupils’ attitudes to reading and their wellbeing with online platform Wellbeing Through Reading.
• The Mentally Healthy Schools website is a mental health information and resource hub for schools.
• Healthy Minds is a set of free resources to support teacher-led workshops and activities for UKS2, KS3 and KS4 students produced by LGfL – The National Grid for Learning in partnership with mental health charity Young Minds.
• Wellbeing Connected is a free-to-access Mental Health and Wellbeing training tool created by LGfL – The National Grid for Learning to help schools develop the skills and confidence to support their pupils, communities and staff.
• Find more resources to support Mental Health and Empathy here.