Elizabeth College Junior School has launched ‘Decider Skills’ at Acorn House and Beechwood. Over the past few weeks the children have been learning about their emotions and how to understand and manage them using the Decider Skills toolkit.
Developed by two Guernsey based Cognitive Behaviour Therapists, the system empowers children to be proactive in building strategies for mental wellbeing in everyday life.
At Acorn House children have been introduced to a new character called ‘Fizz’. Fizz is a Unicorn with a ‘fizzy tummy’ which lights up when it is experiencing big emotions. He encourages the children to remember one of the decider skills most important strategies: to stop and think.
If you feel the fizz then you can decide to STOPP.
S = Stop
T = Take a slow deep breath
O = Observe what you are doing, thinking or feeling
P = Pull back
P = Practice what to do and proceed
At Beechwood the children in Year 6 have been getting creative, imagining different scenarios that can happen at school where STOPP would be really helpful. They prepared a series of role plays to explain the first decider skill to the rest of the school at assembly – it was a really great way to empower them to learn a new skill while passing on their knowledge to the younger years.
Jo Atkinson, Deputy Headteacher at Elizabeth College Junior School, said: “Deciding how to react to emotions positively is a skill all children will benefit from, not only throughout their school life but on into adulthood. Elizabeth College Junior School is delighted to be proactively working with parents to help our children’s mental health.”
For a copy of the Decider Skills presentation please click here.
