Education

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The Rez is an exciting collaboration between academics at the University of Sussex, Make (Good) Trouble and Arts Council England. It is a sci-fi podcast adventure for 7–11-year-olds told through a comic book and a game-based website, designed to help young people prepare to negotiate emotional difficulties and stresses. The Rez is created by recent UK Comic Laureate Hannah Berry, alongside a team of writers and psychologists. 

Make (Good) Trouble was engaged to produce content to raise awareness of The Rez, including a Key Stage 2 lesson pack, Quality Assured by the PSHE Association, which has now been updated to include alternative options for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Over 1.5 million children have special educational needs, according to government statistics – an increase of 87,000 on 2022. 

Teaching about kindness supports pupils with SEND in meeting learning outcomes around ‘Self Awareness’, as outlined in the PSHE Association’s Planning Framework, and helps teachers to cover statutory content about ‘Caring friendships’ from the Department for Education’s RSHE guidance. You can find more about teaching safe and effective PSHE education for pupils with SEND on the PSHE Association’s website. There’s also a super-useful teacher’s handbook for embedding inclusive practice around SEND in schools.

We felt it was important for to work with the University of Sussex and the PSHE Association to develop guides and lesson plans that include pupils with SEND. We work with a lot of young people who have additional needs, and it’s great to offer more practical support and visually engaging content to enhance their experience in the classroom.

“We were delighted to work with The Rez and Make (Good) Trouble on this project. The story and bright visual aspects of these lesson plans will help teachers appeal to pupils’ imagination throughout and help them to explore the topic of kindness a fun and engaging way.” 
 Liz Laming, Senior Subject Specialist, PSHE Association.

“Working with Make (Good) Trouble to develop lesson plans for our PSHE Association-accredited adolescent well-being project has made all the difference to our outreach. It has literally opened the doors to hundreds of schools for us. This means potentially thousands of students are being resourced to support their own mental health and to have healthier media diets. Our impact would have been a fraction of what it is without Make (Good) Trouble. We are working with them on a second set of lesson plans and look forward to working with them on new projects we are developing. They are great!” 
Martin Spinelli, Professor of Podcast at the University of Sussex and Director of Rezilience Ltd.

Get in touch if you’d like us to support you with the development and distribution of PSHE education lessons.

👉 Download the lesson plans here!

👉 jointherez.com

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The mental health crisis in young people is escalating, and in this episode of Raising Teens we look at what mental health support is available in schools. Long-term, children and young people who struggle with their mental health are more likely to have poorer physical health and economic outcomes than their peers.

We hear from young people about their experiences of mental health support in school:

  • “For me, going to see a counsellor, it felt really welcoming and it didn’t feel like I was aiming to completely fix my emotions. It felt like I was understanding them better, which I hadn’t realised I needed to do… I feel like I just understand emotions a bit more. I understand how I work, how I think, which I think is really helpful to anything else that I might experience in the future.”
  • “I had two teachers that I was really close with and I’m still close with now. I felt comfortable with them, but they weren’t the pastoral team. They weren’t people that were trained in a way to help me cope with my mental health issues. Comfortability-wise, the pastoral team weren’t people who I could really see myself going up to and asking for help.”

We discuss how schools can help to improve the outlook for our young people, what help children are entitled to and whether schools are equipped to provide that support and help prevent the need for clinical treatment. It’s not known how many children are educated at home, but in  a report this week from Schools Week, it’s estimated that there has been a rise of 60% since the pandemic. What support can home-schooled young people expect?

🎧 Listen to Raising Teens: Support in Schools on BBC Sounds.

Our expert guests for episode 6 are:

If you’re wondering how parents can support their teens, and how we can make sure that support is accessible to every young person that needs it, tune in to BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey, and BBC Sounds on Fridays at 7pm or catch up any time on BBC Sounds. 

👉 Find out more about Raising Teens and listen to past episodes: Raising Teens.

👏 Raising Teens series 5 is supported by NHS Sussex.

Help and support:

If you/your child needs help, their first port of call should be your school’s pastoral team. Outside of school, the following services might be helpful.

e-wellbeing, Parent and young people Mental Health Support

YMCA Dialogue Counselling Services, accredited by The British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy.

AudioActive, non-profit organisation based in Brighton and across Sussex offering free drop-in sessions and workshops for young people based around music.
AudioActive also offer: 

  • Shift programme in schools
  • Room to Rant – “a space for young men to rap and get stuff off their chest”,
  • Vocalise – “a weekly drop in where all young women and gender variant individuals can put life experiences into music in a safe space”.

YMCA DownsLink Group offering mental health services and counselling for children, young people and families in Sussex.

Brighton & Hove Wellbeing Service, a free NHS service for anyone aged 4 years old and upwards with a postcode beginning BN1, BN2, BN3 or BN41. You can make a self-referral using this link. 

Not Fine In School, an organisation run by parents, “who have experienced school attendance barriers”. Their website has a ton of useful resources and information. They also host closed Facebook groups for families, professionals and school teachers.

Place 2 Be works with schools to support children’s and young people’s mental health. They have useful information for parents.

Young Minds offers help with:
Problems at School

The Student Room, community forum for advice and support for school, college and university students.

Kooth, a mental wellbeing community for young people to find online support and counselling

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First up, apologies for the missing August round up. Holidays got in the way! The good news is that we’re back and have a bumper issue for you covering the news over the last few weeks! So grab a cuppa and dive in…

In this month’s post:

  • Teen wellbeing is still declining, with the cost of living crisis and post pandemic fall-out likely to blame. 
  • School absences are on the rise – perhaps it’s time to listen to young people?
  • Being human – why we’re really looking forward to the Brighton Summit

How are our teens?

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks talking to young people for our upcoming series of Raising Teens (broadcast on BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey this autumn). Every conversation we have with a young person gives us a better understanding of their needs and issues. It means we can work together to find ways to help. We’ll have more details in next month’s post.

As I was putting the finishing touches to this post, the Education Secretary announced that they’re planning to ban mobile phones in schools in England. They say it’s to address behavioural and mental health concerns. Much of the news about children and young people in the last couple of months has centred around a drop in happiness and wellbeing. The effects of the pandemic and cost of living crisis has been huge. The BBC published a poll last month that highlighted many of their concerns. It made for fascinating reading. 44% of girls and 24% of boys said they feel unsafe on the streets, over a quarter said they feel anxious most or all of the time – exams, school and peer pressure were the top 3 reasons. On the plus side, 66% said they felt positive about the future. 

We covered some of these issues in previous episodes of Raising Teens – and young people and professionals shared some great advice. Listen here: Raising Teens: Personal safety and Raising Teens: Anxiety.

School absences are on the rise

There were plenty of news articles about the rise in persistent school absences. 

“22.5% of pupils were recorded as ‘persistently absent’ (defined by the Department for Education as missing 10% or more of possible school sessions). This equates to around 1.6 million pupils.” (House of Commons Research Briefing, 29 September 2023) 

When looking for reasons why, some point to a change in parental attitudes since the pandemic. Schools Week reported today that there’s been a rise in home schooled children that perhaps points to disaffection with the school system. Whatever the reason, many families are struggling to cope and it’s hitting the poorest hardest – “37.2% of free school meal eligible pupils were persistently absent compared with 17.5% of pupils that were not eligible” – with a knock-on effect of lower attainment for those absent pupils. A recent IPPR paper looked at the need for wholesale changes in education to make it fit for 21st Century needs. In particular, they argue that a shift is needed in our school system – one that moves from “a system that disempowers young people” to one that “gives young people voice and agency.” We agree that it’s time to listen to young people. Their feedback is vital to inform the future of education. 

If you’re worried about your child’s school attendance and need help, take a look at Not Fine in School. It’s a great resource for parents and carers worried about their children’s school attendance. It was set up by parents who have experienced these issues. 

Human: Looking forward to the Brighton Summit

It’s been 5 years since we started Make (Good) Trouble (five years! Time flies). It started from an idea Daisy (my sister and co-founder of MGT) put to an audience at The Brighton Summit. We had an overwhelming response. Five years on, and we’re back at the Summit with Daisy as MC! It’s a great event and we’re really excited about this year’s theme: Human. The focus is on human resilience, courage and kindness, on human centred businesses. This is at the heart of MGT, building human connections between young people and parents, carers, families and the professionals who are trusted with their care. We’ll cover some of the debates, issues and ideas in next month’s round up.

Help and advice

We’ve been adding to our Help & Advice pages over the summer, so if you need somewhere or someone to turn to, take a look. The pages are full of great resources and organisations, many of whom we’ve worked with over the past 5 years. If you have any great resources you think we should add, let us know.

Till next month! Keep well. x

P.S. The image at the top of this page is from our August summer club – participants had been helping with pruning and conservation in the South Downs National Park. The SDNP team, MGT and participants showing the fruits of their labour. ♥️

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Make (Good) Trouble and Sussex University are thrilled to announce the award winning comic and audiobook Sci-Fi series, The Rez has been awarded a PSHE Quality Mark for their new teaching guide and school lesson plans for Key Stage 2.

Make (Good) Trouble worked with the PSHE Association, Sussex University and educators to develop the lesson plans which support teachers in delivering lessons on kindness as part of PSHE education. The guides are designed to create a safe and engaging learning environment in which to teach about kindness and communication

“Our research shows that unfortunately a significant proportion of children are frequently on the receiving end of bullying behaviours. Developing empathy and encouraging kindness can make a big difference when it comes to bullying, so resources that support teachers to bring this into their classroom this are extremely valuable.”  Martha Evans, Director of Anti-Bullying Alliance

The Rez was developed by UK Comic Book Laureate Hannah Berry and a team of writers and psychologists, including Robin Banerjee, Professor of Kindness and Head of Psychology at University of Sussex. 

This comic book contains pro-social and emotional well-being messaging about friendship and kindness, designed to help young people prepare to negotiate emotional difficulties and stresses.

The Rez’s heroes are played by Karl Queensborough, who played Hamilton in the West End show of the same name, and Emily Burnett, Children’s BAFTA award winner.

👉 Download the lesson plans here!

The Rez is produced in collaboration with: 

Make (Good) Trouble CIC
University of Sussex
PHSE Association
Arts Council England
University of Brighton
Hopscotch
Anti Bullying Alliance
Periscope
Millipedia