In order to better understand what is actually being taught in primary schools in terms of mental health, mental illness and positive mental health, it seems imperative to interview someone who teaches the curriculum. Because of this, I will be interviewing a primary school teacher in order to learn more about what is being taught in primary schools so that I can better inform my brief for my project.
What I want to learn from this interview:
The main aim of this interview will be for me to understand more about what is taught in primary schools, specifically in terms of mental health and positive mental health topics. This will help me to fully fledge my idea of mental health educational animation for primary schools, and whether or not these resources would even be useful or appropriate for primary schools.
Below are just some of the points which I hope to understand more about from the interview:
- Is mental health, mental illness, and positive mental health covered in primary school at all
- Are the school doing enough to educate children on these topics
- If primary school teachers think the mental health should be discussed with pupils or if it shouldn’t be covered until high school
- Would my learning resources (animations covering these topics in a child appropriate way) be useful to schools
In order to gain answer from my above points, here are just some of the potential question that I am planning on asking during my interview to gage what is actually covered in primary schools and if my resources (animation videos) would be useful.
Potential questions to ask:
- What is covered in the school curriculum?
- Is the topic of mental health covered in school?
- Is the topic of mental illness covered in school?
- Is the topic of positive mental health covered in school?
- If they are, to what age groups are these taught to?
- Do you think that mental health, mental illness and positive mental health should be taught in primary school?
- Do you think enough is being down to tech children about mental health, mental illness and positive mental health?
- Why do you think that schools do/don’t teach these topics to primary school children?
Having begun the process of collecting potential questions and understanding what I want to learn about the primary school curriculum, my next step will be to actually write up the interview questions ready to ask my interviewee.