Experimenting with Software | After Effects

This is the second software that I will be experimenting with in order to determine which software will be most appropriate to use for my mental health animations. In order to test out the animations within After Effects, I have decided to follow the tutorial video below and try to animate a cartoon world. I decided to follow this tutorial due to covering the entire overview of creating a cartoon based animation.

How To Create Cartoon World Animation | After Effects & Illustrator Tutorial

Creating Animation in After Effects

Below are the time laps videos that illustrate the process of creating a cartoon world animation. For these animation I first went to a site called freepik in order to find an image that I wanted to animate. Although for my actual project I plan on creating all the components for the animations myself, for this test I though it would be quicker to download one so I could spend more time working on the animations.

After downloading the image I then opened up the file within Illustrator and then began separating the layers so that when I imported the file into After Effects I would be able to animate each individual element of the image if I chose to do so. Once this was done, I then saved the file before opening up After Effects and importing the Illustrator file into a new composition before opening up the layers so I could begin animating.

I first began by animating the clouds so that they would float across the screen. I did this by selecting the layers and then pressing ‘P’ in order to key frame in the position before moving to the end of my time line and moving the position of the clouds so they where further along the screen. This then gave the effect of the clouds gently moving along the screen as if there was a gentle breeze. I then did the same thing for the sun and selected the layer before pressing ‘P’ to key in its position, making it seem as if the sun was beginning to set.

I then wanted to animate the trees slightly in order to make it seem like the were swaying in the breeze. To do this I first selected a layer with some of the trees before selecting the puppet tool. I then places pins on the areas where I wanted to stay rooted before placing a pin at the top of each of the trees. I then selected the pins placed on the tops of the trees while holding shift. I then selected the pin and dragged it slightly to the side before moving along the timeline and dragging the pin in the other direction. This resulted in the trees looking as if they were swaying slightly and so I repeated the process again with the other tree layers.

After doing all this I decided to add a ripple effect so that the river would look like it was moving slightly. I achieved this by selecting the layer and then going to effect, distort and then selecting ripple. I then positioned the ripple effect where I wanted it within the water before adjusting the settings slightly so the intensity of the ripple wasn’t too high.

Software Experimentation | Part 3

Software Experimentation | Part 4

Software Experimentation | Part 5

Final Animation in After Effects

Below are two different outcomes from creating world animations within After Effects. I decide to add some background sounds to the first animation to help set the scene.

Software Experimentation | Part 6

Software Experimentation | Part 7

Reflection

I found animating these static image within After Effects a lot of fun, and it has given me some ideas for my own animations within my project. Just like with Character Animator I have limited previous experience with After Effects and this test was more about re-familiarising myself with the software and its capabilities. The software is very good with animating objects and seems to work well for explainer videos, which may be more useful to me if I decide to create more informative than narrative based animations talking about mental health.

Having explored After Effects my next step will be to test out animation within Adobe Animate. This will be the last animation software that I will explore before deciding on which software will be the most appropriate to use for my mental health animations.

Bibliography 

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds-_lvvI00M&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge [Accessed 19 March 2021]

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 6. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2fQVeboSwE&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge [Accessed 18 March 2021]

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 5. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdlQnPnG4XY&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge . [Accessed 18 March 2021]

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 4. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BONiJjdd-zc&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge . [Accessed 18 March 2021]

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 3. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL0T9iplA4s&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge. [Accessed 18 March 2021]

SonduckFilm (2020) How To Create Cartoon World Animation | After Effects & Illustrator Tutorial. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqujN20Q_PU&t=199s&ab_channel=SonduckFilm. [Accessed 18 March 2021]

Mental Health | Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency

Within this documentary Roman Kemp explores the mental health and suicide crisis affecting young men in the UK. The documentary takes a closer look at the urgent issue of young men’s mental health and why an increasing number of them are taking their own lives and the reason why so many never seem to seek help. Roman Kemp explores what can be done to encourage more people to seek help, what preventative action we need to be taking, and the lasting impact suicide has on the loved ones left behind.

Although this documentary is more focused on male suicide, it does bring attention to the rise in mental health issues that are arising within young people. More and more children and teenagers seem to be struggling with poor mental health and suicidal thoughts, with children as young as 11 calling up suicide crisis lines for help.

While three quarters of all suicides are committed by men, these individuals seem to be more resistant to seeking help and often appear happy and content to friends and family up until the point that they commit suicide. This highlights that more needs to be done in getting people, especially men to start opening up to others about their feelings, and feeling comfortable enough to seek help when required. 1 in 5 people in the UK will have suicidal thoughts at some point in there life and more needs to be done to help these people from acting on those feelings.

One of the most important things I learnt from this documentary is how important communication and opening up about feelings are. Talking to someone about how you truly feel can help you to rationalise how you are feeling and can even help you to find the right support needed to start to feel more content. Keeping things bottled up and hidden only leads to more negative feelings such as isolation and loneliness and can result in feeling suicidal. This documentary explores the lives of three men of killed themselves during the pandemic, during which many people were alone and isolated due to the lockdowns and social distancing laws in place. This again highlights that fact that now more than ever we need to make sure that we are checking in on our friends and communicating so people do not feel as if they are along.

What I have learnt

All this is very helpful in terms of research for my mental health animations as it suggests just some points that will be good to communicate to children such as normalising talking about our feelings with others. From this documentary it is clear that a lot of these men that sadly died did not open up about their feelings to anyone and instead kept their emotions to themselves. This was obviously very detrimental to their mental wellbeing, and so normalising talking about feelings within my mental health animations will hopefully help children to open up more when they are feeling down and know to seek help when they need it.

Bibliography

Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency (2021) [Television]. BBC Three. 16 March 2021, 21:00.

Mental Health Research | 4

Relaxation and Mindfulness

Both relaxation and mindfulness are skills to be learnt and practised as they are both great techniques that can help at times of increased stress, pressure and worry.

Relaxation 

Practising relaxation is very good for your wellbeing and can help to better manage emotions such as anxiety, worry or stress. Although there are many different forms of relaxation, the three most well-practised are breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery.

Mindfulness

This is a technique that involves purposely trying to focus on being in the present moment and allowing thoughts to just enter and leave your mind.

Benefits of practising mindfulness include:

  • Increases your ability to be self aware
  • Stress reduction
  • Feeling more able to cope with difficult situations
  • Feeling more in control of what to focus on
  • Being less judgmental of yourself
  • Helps reduce more physical symptoms associated with stress and anxiety

How to practise mindfulness 

Mindful eating – Pay attention to the taste taste, textures, sight and smell of what you are eating and drinking.

Mindful moving – Notice how you move when walking, running or jogging, think about the different surfaces you are moving across feel.

Body scan – Start from your head and work you way down to just focus on the individual parts of you body. Focus on the feeling of warmth throughout your body, how you are breathing.

Mindful drawing – Focus on the pen or pencil, the colour you are using, how it feelings against the texture of the paper. Try not to think about what it is you are drawing but the feeling of drawing.

Mindful meditation – Sit quietly and focus on your breathing, your thoughts, sensations in your body and what you can hear around you.

Bibliography 

Student Wellbeing Centre (2021) Relaxation and Mindfulness [Blog]. Available from: https://cpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/dist/4/8317/files/2019/07/Relaxation.pdf. [Accessed 15 March 2021]

Experimenting with Software | Character Animator

Before I can begin to animate my mental health videos I first need to decide which software will be best suited for my project. Because of this I aim to create a small animation within the softwares Character Animator, After Effects and Adobe Animate in order to understand how each of the programmes works first hand, and hopefully at the end I will be able to chose which software to use for my project. To begin with I will create a small animation of a character using Character animator.

Although I have a basic understanding of how to use Character Animator due to using the software in second year, I though it best to test out the software again due to it being a while since I last used the programme. Below is a tutorial video by Okay Samurai who goes through the basics of how to use the software. I will be using this tutorial video in order to refresh myself on how the software works.

Getting Started in Adobe Character Animator 

Creating Animation in Character Animator

In order to create an animation within character animator, your first have to create the character using either Photoshop or Illustrator. For my test animation I decided to use Photoshop to create the character simple because I have more knowledge using that software.

When creating the character it is vital that all groups and layers are labelled correctly so that you will be able to animate the character once it is imported into Character Animator. A simple way to break it down is to have three main groups, one labelled character, one labelled head and the last one labelled body. This will help to keep all the parts of your character organised and make it easier to edit if needs be. The other key feature to remember is that rights and lefts are mirrored, so if you want to add the left eye, when looking at the screen that will appear to your as the right eye. It is also key to remember that anything that will be animated through tracking, such as the pupil and eyebrow will need a plus before the name of the layer, otherwise when you import the character other to Character Animator, it wont animate.

As is visible from the image below, I have just created a very simple and basic character head in order to animate. Although for my own animations the characters will have body’s, while testing out the different software I did not think it was necessary to create a whole character to animate. This would have just be very time consuming and creating just the head of a character gives me enough insight and understanding into how the software works.

Software Experimentation | Part 1

Software Experimentation | Part 2

Reflection

After creating the head of a character and animating it I was able to refresh myself on the process of animating within Character Animator. The process of creating the character is very simple, as is rigging it to animate, and there is a lot of potential to get creative with the software. Where the software fails is in its ability to only animate characters, meaning that if I decided to use this software, I would most likely also have to use something like After Effects or Premier Pro so that I could make my animations more substantial, and not just an animated character.

Having explored Character Animator my next step will be to test out animation within After Effects. This I plan to do in a similar fashion to how I have explored Character Animator, by finding a simple tutorial on youtube and then replicating the process within the software. This will hopefully help me to decide which software will be the most appropriate to use for my mental health animations.

Bibliography 

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 2. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKxqjhQQPvg&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge. [Accessed 16 March 2021]

Katherine Leveridge (2021) Software Experimentation | Part 1. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnkhx6A2RMs&ab_channel=KatherineLeveridge. [Accessed 16 March 2021]

Okay Samurai (2020) Getting Started in Adobe Character Animator. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKCw4f1UrI&ab_channel=OkaySamurai. [Accessed 13 March 2021].

Mental Health Research | 3

Managing low mood and depression

Depression and low mood can occur for a variety of different reasons, such as certain situations, feelings, emotions or events or can either be triggered by seemingly nothing, which we can internalise to believe that there is no valid reason for feeling that way we do. It is completely normal to feel bouts of low mood, however if the feeling persists, it is important to seek help from a GP.

Below are just some examples of the causes and symptoms of low mood or depression.

How to manage low moods and depression

Routine

Having a routine gives you structure and purpose and is something to aim to have even when going through a period of low mood. Each evening, plan for the following day so when you wake up, all you need to do is follow your plan.

Self-care

Feeling low or depressed can often cause individuals to forget about self-care. Getting enough sleep, eating properly and regularly, exercising, spending time with others and relaxing are just some of the fundamentals to try and achieve even when feeling low, as often poor self-care can lead to further feelings of low mood.

Positive self-talk 

Often when we feel low we will start to talk negatively about ourselves which can lead to a downward spiral of negative thought and often a lack of motivation to do anything. Instead, try to turn all negative thoughts about yourself into a positive to help raise your esteem and motivation about yourself.

Keep a diary or journal 

Keeping a mood journal can often be useful in pinpointing why you feel a certain way and what has caused that feeling. By jotting down when you feel different emotions and what was happening at the point you felt that emotion, you will hopefully begin to notice a pattern in why you feel down at certain points and what potentially is causing that feeling.

Distraction techniques 

This technique is only a short term fix but distracting yourself through watching something on TV or reading a book can be good in keeping your mind off unwanted thoughts for a little while.

Open up 

Opening up can be extremely helpful as i tallows you to get things off your chest and rationalise them in the process. It can help ease isolation and you are far more likely to be offered compassion rather than the rejection you maybe fearing.

Seek support 

Animation talking about depression

Below is an animation that talks about what depression is and how it feels in a more narrative style. I really like how depression is depicted within this animation and personified, but still manages to get across the seriousness and factual information about what it is like to live with depression. I think that this video really succeeds in informing people what depression is actually like while still presenting the video in a light tone through the images shown. This is something I hope to achieve through my animations due to my target audience being children. I want my videos to be informative and education while still keeping a light tone so that I don’t scare the children with my subject matter.

I had a black dog, his name was depression

 

Bibliography – [complete references]

Student Wellbeing Centre (2021) Managing low mood and depression [Blog]. Available from: https://cpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/dist/4/8317/files/2019/07/Low-Mood-2-1.pdf. [Accessed 15 March 2021]

World Health Organization (WHO) (2012) I had a black dog, his name was depression. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc&ab_channel=WorldHealthOrganization%28WHO%29. [Accessed 15 March 2021]

Mental Health Research | 2

Although I am planning for my mental health animations to be aimed at primary school aged children, the University of Lincoln’s student wellbeing centre has a lot of helpful resources with information that is beneficial to my research. On the wellbeing site there is a section for self-help guides that provide information on managing stress, eating well, relaxation and mindfulness etc.

Self-help guides

Managing stress

What causes stress?

Stress is a perfectly natural felling to experience and can be caused by many different things. As a student, some of the most common causes of stress include:

  • Deadlines
  • Exam preparation
  • Academic pressure
  • Expectations of yourself
  • The need to impress others
  • Busy schedule
  • Poor sleep
  • Poor eating habits

Ways to manage stress 

Open up 

Talking to someone can help to rationalise issues. Friends, family, teachers, whoever your are most comfortable with, opening up and talking can really help to eleviate some of the stress felt.

Manage your time 

Using diaries or planners can help you to organise your time and make sure that your are using your time efficiently so you feel less stressed about the work you need to get done. Writing  every day list that also include normal day to day activities can also help to make sure you are making the most of each day and hopefully reduce the stress felt towards deadlines and academic pressure.

Take breaks 

Making sure to take regular breaks throughout the day will help to keep your mind active and healthy. Staring at a screen for long hours each day without taking a break can be very bad for your mental health and cause you to lose motivation in working. Regular breaks helps to give the mind some time to rest a rejuvenate so you are able to work at 100% performance on work.

Get some fresh air 

Going out for a walk can help reduce feelings of stress. Getting away from where you normally do work and getting some fresh air can help to reduce the stress and replenish feelings of calmness.

Look after yourself 

When feeling stressed, we are often guilty of not looking after ourselves. Making sure you get enough sleep, eating properly and regularly, exercising, spending time with others are just some of the fundamentals of looking after oneself.

Bibliography 

https://cpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/dist/4/8317/files/2019/07/Stress-2.pdf

Mental Health Research

What is mental health?

Mental health is the mental well-being, so our emotions, thoughts and feelings, ability to solve problems and overcome difficulties, social connections and out understanding of the world around us. The world health organisation (WHO) describes mental health as;

“A state of well-being in which the individual realises his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”

Bad mental health can affect:

  • Work, school, or home life
  • relationships with people
  • sleep
  • appetite
  • energy levels
  • ability to think clearly
  • physical health
  • life satisfaction and more

However, having  good mental health means that you can:

  • Make the most of your potential
  • Cope with life
  • Play a full part in your family, workplace, community and among friends

What is mental illness?

Mental illness however is an illness that affects the way individuals think, feel, behave or interact with others. There are a number of different mental illnesses, such as depression, and they all have different symptoms and effect a persons life in different ways.

An important factor to note about mental health and mental illness is that they are not the opposite of each other. A person may have good mental health but still have a mental illness, or someone could have no mental illness and still have bad mental health. Good mental health isn’t about feeling happy all the time and ignoring any problems, its about living and coping well despite the problems. Everyones mental health is in a state of flux, with days of bad mental health and days of good mental health, the important thing is to make sure that you find a balance.

How to look after your mental health?

Talk about your feelings 

Talking can be a good way to cope with problems you are carrying around in your head. By talking to someone it may lift some of the burden you may feel and make you feel better afterwords. It may also encourage others to do the same and open up about their problems too. Although it may not be easy to open up about how you are feeling straight away and may feel a little uncomfortable, try and give it some time. Opening up is one of the best ways to sort through feelings and may really help in improving your mental health.

Keep active 

Regular exercise can boost your self-esteem and can help you concentrate, sleep and feel better. Exercise is a great way to keep both the body and mind active, and helps in creating good mental health. While experts recommend around 30 minutes of exercise five days a week, this doesn’t have to be too strenuous. Just going on a walk and getting some fresh air should help in improving your mental health.

Eat well

What we eat can have an effect of how we feel. Eating lots of sugary foods and just junk food in general can make people feel very lafargic and just not great in general. The brain needs lots of nutrients in order to stay healthy, which is why its so important to have a good healthy and balanced diet, for both your physical and mental health. A healthy diet should include:

  • A variety of fruit and vegetables
  • Wholegrain cereals or bread
  • Nuts and seeds
  • Dairy products
  • Oily fish
  • Plenty of water

It is good to try and limit the amount of high caffeine, sugary drinks and alcohol you consume as these in large quantities are not great for you physical or mental health.

Drink sensibly 

People often tend to drink alcohol to change their mood, such as to deal with loneliness or fear. This is not a good coping mechanism due to the effects being temporary and the individual often feeling worse once the drink has worn off. If excessive drinking is used as a coping mechanism then the person will start to build up a tolerance and have to consume more alcohol each time. A light drink occasionally is perfectly health for most people as long as they stay within the recommended limits (three to four units a day for men and two to three units a day for women)

Keep in touch 

Strong ties with family and friends can really help in dealing with the normal stresses of life. They can help keep you active, keep you grounded and can help you solve practical problems. It’s worth working at relationships that make you feel loved or valued. But, if you think being around someone is damaging your mental health, it may be best to take a break from them or call it a day completely. It’s possible to end a relationship in a way that feels okay for both of you.

Ask for help

If things are getting too much for you and you feel you can’t cope, ask for help. Your family or friends may be able to offer practical help or a listening ear. Local services are there to help you. Examples of support  support include

  • Joining a support group
  • Find a counsellor
  • Talk to your GP

Take a break

It is important to take time out of your day to just take a break. This is where for a few minuets, hours or maybe a whole day, you take a break to look after yourself and your mental health. Taking a break may mean being very active. It may mean not doing very much at all. Activities such as yoga or meditation, maybe helpful in finding peace. Listen to your body. If you’re really tired, give yourself time to sleep. Without good sleep, our mental health suffers and our concentration goes downhill.

Do something you’re good at 

Enjoying yourself can help beat stress. Doing an activity you enjoy probably means you’re good at it, and achieving something boosts your self-esteem. Concentrating on a hobby, like gardening or doing crosswords, can help you forget your worries for a while and can change your mood.

Accept who you are 

It’s much healthier to accept that you’re unique than to wish you were more like someone else. Feeling good about yourself boosts your confidence to learn new skills, visit new places and make new friends. Good self-esteem helps you cope when life takes a difficult turn.

Care for others 

Caring for others is often an important part of keeping up relationships with people close to you. It can even bring you closer together. Helping out can make us feel needed and valued, and that boosts our self-esteem. It also helps us to see the world from another angle. This can help to put our own problems in perspective. Caring for a pet can improve your wellbeing too. The bond between you and your pet can be as strong as between people.Looking after a pet can bring structure to your day and can act as a link to other people.

Bibliography

Mental Health Foundation (2021) How to look after your metal health. Available from: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/How%20to…mental%20health.pdf [Accessed 12 March]

Mental Health in Education

Lincoln Live Lounge – Dr Alex George

Within this talk Dr Alex George the new UK Youth Mental Heath Ambassador for the department of education and Julie Spencer the head of student wellbeing at the University of Lincoln talk about mental health. The talk focuses on what mental health is, how to cope with mental health, what services are available at Lincoln and what Dr Alex’s new position means in terms of improving mental health in education.

Within the talk Dr Alex talks about how he is an A&E doctor, and that around 1/3 of the patients he sees come in with mental health cases. A&E should not be the first place that people open up about mental health, which is one of the issues Dr Alex wishes to tackle as a mental health ambassador, and get people talking about their issues and getting the support need before it become a crisis.

What Dr Alex wants to focus on as the Youth Mental Health Ambassador:

  • Reducing the stigma around mental health
  • Improving education and schools approach to wellbeing
  • Having mental health higher up on the school curriculum
  • More support teams available
  • Having intervention earlier, before children develop issues or need referrals

Some of the advice given during the talk about maintaining good mental health was to take time out of your day and putting energy into looking after yourself, getting into good habits and routines early on which can follow you through life, and opening up and talking to others about your feelings rather than bottling them down. By opening up, intervention can occur and reduce the chance of a bigger problem developing.

One of the more interesting topics brought up during that talk was that Dr Alex wanted to focus his attention on informing schools about mental health due to the lack of coverage taught when he was in education. While there seem to be a lot of resources available for university students via students wellbeing centres and website which offer both in person, and virtual support, primary and secondary schools seem to be lacking some of this. This is clearly evident in the research I have conducted previously via my interview with a primary school teachers, and generally research into the curriculum and external resources.

What I have learnt 

From this talk it is clear that the government and schools are trying to do more to raise awareness of mental health in education, especially in primary and secondary schools where there seems to be less support than at university. Issues such as stigma and trying to get people to open up and seek helps before the issue becomes a crises seem to be the main problems wanting to be addressed.

This suggests that it would be good for my animations to be presented in a way that will help in reducing the stigma of mental health. It would also be beneficial for my animations to show how children could seek help, so that if the feel that their mental health is falling, then they know what to do to get help before the issue gets bigger and needs more critical intention.

Bibliography

University of Lincoln (2021) Lincoln Live Lounge with Dr Alex George [Facebook]. 10 March. Available from: https://fb.watch/4bhYgG6PEr/. [Accessed 13 March 2021].

Interviewing a Primary School Teacher | Analysis / Concept Confirmed

From the interview I conducted with a primary school teacher, I have learnt that while primary schools are doing more in order to promote good mental health through lots of activities, children do not necessarily know what mental health actually is. Schools tend to participate in a range of activities that are good for children mental health, such as yoga session, but they do not seem to explain to the children how these session our helping their mental health.

The interview has also given me insight into the fact that teachers do not seem to have the time to cover important topics such as mental health. Due to teachers already having to cover the national curriculum and life skills, mental health often gets sidelined for more important subjects such as English and math.

This shows how there does seem to be a need for resources that will cover important topics such as mental health due to teachers not having the time to cover them in school. Nowhere in the national curriculum, or in the extra activities schools have begun holding is there explicit mention of what mental health is or how to maintain good mental health. This shows how my project of creating animations covering the topic of mental health for key stage 2 children in primary education will be beneficial within schools. My animations will have the potential to be used as resources that the teaches could either show in class to begin the discussion of mental health with their students, or as external resources that students will be able to watch and access outside of the classroom. By creating these animation I will be able to help reduce the stigma that surrounds the topic of mental health and help to educate young children in what mental health is and how to maintain good mental health, which could help reduce the development of more series issues.

Interviewing a Primary School Teacher | Interview Transcript

Below is the typed up transcript from the interview I conducting with a primary school teacher in oder to understand more about what is taught in primary schools in terms of mental health, mental illness and positive mental health.

The Interview

Who are you and what year group do you teach in primary school?

I am qualified to teach reception to year six. So that is early years, key stage one and key stage two.

What is your understanding of the terms mental health, mental illness, and postive mental health?

Mental health, I suppose its your mental wellbeing, so your happiness and everything in-between. Poor mental health would be examples such as depression and anxiety. It’s difficult to describe really, I would say wellbeing but even that I suppose is still fairly vague.

Is the topic of mental health, mental illness and postive mental health covered in the school you teach?

So I’m teaching…I don’t work in a school anymore I work for a charity now and we work in schools in areas with deprivations where children mental health isn’t always good. They [the children] have quite difficult backgrounds and come from quite difficult lives. It’s interesting really, i’m not sure how much is done in schools really but i think an increasing amount. I think there is much more of an awareness of wellbeing and looking after children mental health and bringing mindfulness sessions and time to talk sessions. Pastoral care as the going in and working in classes. Within my role, we use green care, we provide them with activities of cooking and gardening, which at the moment is just brilliant for children. Some of them, I remember one little girl said to me “when I garden it just makes me feel free” and she had a particularly challenging background. I think what I do, it’s great for their mental health, but what they do in schools, I think they are becoming more aware.

Do you think this topic is being covered to all age groups in primary school?

Yeah I do. I don’t think they talk about it directly, but they do things like, have a worry box, and just little things like where they can identity if children are struggling. They do things like yoga and relaxation and polarities, and time to sort of switch off. There is definitely something that has taken off.

Do you think enough is being done to tech children about mental health, mental illness and positive mental health?

I think its fairly challenging, teaching in the school have got such a large content to cover and deliver within the school year with maths, english, science and deliver those core subjects and key skills for life, but there is the argument that can they grasp and develop those key skills for life if they are not mentally happy and stable. If they spend 50% of the lesson anxious about something, I think there is definitely more space for more awareness and activities to support children’s mental health.

My Project idea

My idea of my digital media project is to create a collection of animation that discuss the topics of mental health and positive mental health in a child appropriate manor. My plan is to create these videos that will be education and engaging for children aged 9 – 12 and could be used as educational assets to teach children about these topics.

What are your thoughts?

Yeah I think the idea is definitely a good one. I think um, they have animations that they show in schools like staying safe on the internet, they have them for child protection issues. Even at reception they are taught, there is a song they sing making sure children are aware that they shouldn’t be showing their privates to others. But thats from receptions, they are definitely, and children remember them, things like songs and animations. They tend to take in animations as it isn’t just a teacher telling them informations, and is giving them another medium to absorb the information in from.