Our Story
In response to the growing number of people suffering with mental health troubles, Governments throughout the world are realising that early intervention is better than specialist support later in life. One effective way to do this is with simple psycho-education skills development curriculum-based interventions in schools.
Over the past two years a group of academic, educational and clinical psychologists, and teachers in Bristol UK have been working to develop a primary school PSHE curriculum based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is a mindfulness-based approach to wellbeing that focuses on psychological flexibility (being willing to experience all thoughts and feelings, even the unwanted ones, whilst still moving in the direction of one’s values). An exciting and developmentally sensitive ACT model for children has recently emerged, which we have chosen to form the spine of the Connect curriculum. Its name is DNA-V, and this model provides teachers and children a way of talking about thoughts, feelings and behaviour that positively impacts wellbeing.
There are three further aspects to our story that set us apart. Firstly, we have avoided the traditional themes associated with other PSHE curriculum and have instead used the scientific literature to guide us. Specifically, psychologically healthy people tend engage in six behaviours (connecting with others, challenging oneself, giving to others, exercising, embracing the moment and self-care). These six behaviours form the themes in our curriculum. In other words, over time we want children to get better at doing those things.
Secondly, we train teaching staff in the DNA-V model as part of the package. We do this because (1) it is important that teachers know the model in order to be able to deliver the lesson plans effectively and (2) because we want the school to immerse themselves in the language of the model so that it can be useful at any point i.e. we feel that 45 minutes a week of intervention may not hit home but teachers that are fluent in the model might use the language at other times throughout the week.
Finally, we are committed to providing a curriculum that really does improve important indices for children. This is not a commercial product that we will sell if it does not work, irrespective of money. In order to make sure that the curriculum is doing what it should, we have (and will continue to have) an active Connect research program, where we measure the impact that the curriculum has on wellbeing, behaviour, academic performance, pro-social actions and even friendship networks.
