Can Social Innovation Education support social, emotional & mental health?

Can Social Innovation Education support social, emotional & mental health?

Social Innovation Education was developed to give young people the chance to identify and address social problems in their local area and, through hands on experience for a real-life purpose, enable them to develop the competences to do this now and in the future. 

But Jane Fearnley, CEO of Willow Tree Academy and Louise Greenwood, Rockingham J&I School Leader, saw another opportunity. The values that SIE cultivate such as empathy, responsible thinking and collective efficacy could nurture the social, emotional & mental health needs of their vulnerable children. So, in Rockingham School a NEMESIS project with an additional focus began. Social Innovation Education brought together a group of 7 children aged 8-11 (John, Joe, Aron, Jessica, Heather, Luke and Andrew, all pseudonyms) to focus on the positive goal of changing the old caretakers house into a nurture centre for social, emotional and mental health and work with adults and each other in ways they never had before. Could this approach support their social, emotional & mental health?

 The children came from diverse backgrounds with complex needs including challenging home life, bereavement, low self-confidence, emotional and behavioural problems. They took part in Co-creation Labs from January to July 2019, with some work back in class too. They were supported by school staff as well as the adults that took part in the labs, from the local vicar, local police and councillors to students from the local secondary school. I followed their progress over the year through observations, looking at their work and interviews with staff and a parent and was intrigued by my findings…

Communication

In my observation notes I commented that ‘communication is a really big one that’s being developed through communication with adults, presentation skills, body, face and verbal language with adults. It’s evident through being and talking with them’. School staff noticed this too, especially between children who didn’t usually want to talk to each other:

«Aron, who did not used to enjoy going to school, wrote in his first self-assessment that he is not happy working with lots of people and that his communication needed developing. In the second lab when we began brainstorming in small groups Aron said to me ‘I like the bit of the meeting where we do this’ and Luke and Andrew, who were in his group, encouraged him to share an idea he had had with the whole lab. In the fourth lab when I asked him to draw his idea for how to set up a computer room he immediately responded ‘side-on or bird’s-eye view?’ In lab 4 Joe was very supportive of Aron, who was younger, in groupwork. Joe was patient, listened and Aron responded well. When he finished talking, he gestured politely to Joe and said ‘I’ve not got any ideas, you?’ They then presented their feedback to the lab together and I noted that they were ‘clear and eloquent. Aron was more confident than the last time I saw him present – more motivated and engaged’. In his final self-assessment, he wrote ‘I enjoy working with adults.’»

Confidence

In my opinion, and that of the school staff and local rector, the children seemed to gain confidence. In the first lab I could see that one boy, John, was already very confident but Jessica would only share her ideas through the member of staff who was sitting next to her. The rest of the children mostly listened, smiled and nodded and generally seemed happiest when engaged in small group activities. At the end of the first lab, when asked to give feedback to the whole group, only John contributed. Jump to 4 months later. When asked to give feedback every child put their hand up to go to the front and present! Some had more passive roles, such as holding their poster, but everyone got involved! Jessica even wrote in her final reflection: ‘I am more confident working with others. I am not shy anymore’ and the local rector commented that it was ‘great to see them developing.’

The children’s class teachers and School Leader said they’d noticed that they seemed more willing to share ideas and have a go in class too. In fact, at the UK NEMESIS meeting they showed some of the European partners, who were complete strangers to them, around the school. The partners said they provided enthusiastic, confident tours and Louise noted that they were really chatty and explained everything that was happening in the classrooms they visited. Then the children presented their projects to 30 adults from the NEMESIS team and a teaching assistant said she saw shy Heather come alive and had noticed that ‘in class she’s like a different child because she’s chattier and more confident.’

Maturity 

One of the behavioural and emotional issues identified by school leaders was how reactive this group of children could be, due to a lack of empathy. School staff noticed that throughout the project the children became less reactive: 

 John, who used to be extremely reactive and wanted to work on his empathy, began to think more before he reacted and could manage his own feelings and behaviour by taking time out of class, whereas in the past he used to storm out and not go back. His mother noted this home this change at home too, through his improved ability to form friendships. 

 Aron’s teacher noticed that his behaviour became ‘a lot less volatile as he just used to explode…but he’s more susceptible to being talked down, less confrontational.’ 

 Joe’s teacher also noticed that in the past ‘he might have got quite aggressive or might have overstepped the mark by saying something he didn’t mean’ but ‘he started to process things, he knew he’d said something wrong or had done something wrong’ but he became ‘able to discuss and talk rather than being reactive.’

Empathy

The children seemed to develop their empathy throughout the part of the project where I was observing them, though they needed guidance so going through this process helped them experience empathy for people they didn’t know and situations they were trying to improve. For example, when thinking about issues in their local area John said he saw a dead bird near where he lives. The teacher said that sometimes cats kill them:

 John – ‘we could make a bird cage to keep them safe.’ 

Teacher – ‘that would be like putting Joe in a cage all the time – [to Joe] how would that make you feel?’ 

Joe – ‘bored.’

One member of school staff guided the children from thinking about the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger to articulating why hunger could be a problem for them, and then another age group, by referring one boy back to a previous experience: 

 Teacher – ‘What did I say to you last week about if you don’t eat your lunch? You can’t focus. If you don’t eat you might get poorly. How might this affect grown-ups?’ 

Child – ‘can’t work.’

School staff said they’d noticed a change in the children’s behaviour as they, especially Luke, were more caring when someone is hurt and according to his class teacher he excelled in a recent project where he had to write an account from someone else’s point of view, so his work was put on display. 

Resilience

The children appeared to become more resilient as in the initial interview with Louise she said that her and the Year 6 teacher had noticed that the children ‘do have a lot of ideas but it takes a lot of coaching to get them to think through the thought processes of where they’re wanting to get.’ They thought a project where the children can see real change happening could be good for developing their resilience. They were right about this – even though the project the children were involved in was long term (at least a year) they were excited to see the outcome. I remember one early Co-creation Lab where a lot of information was given out and I worried that the children might be restless because it wasn’t as interactive as usual, but they were so excited to see their ideas for the project coming to life:

‘it was interesting because we got to see the proper house,’ 

– Heather

‘I really like the house and hope it will be finished…it’s not how I thought it would be – it’s bigger and better. Students would be comfy here’ 

– Joe

‘the last meeting was interesting because we got to see what it [will] hopefully look like in the future’ and ‘I think the house will look a lot better in the future’ 

– Aron

So, could taking part in a Social Innovation project help the children’s social, emotional and mental health? Complex needs cannot be changed overnight and everyone’s different but it seemed that the project supported the children in many ways, according to the opinions of school staff, a parent and my observations. 

So, perhaps Social Innovation Education can not only help develop the change makers of tomorrow and beneficiaries of any project but help those involved develop their social emotional and mental health too. It’s an idea worth exploring!

Jen Wall

NEMESIS in Covid Times – Staying social and innovating – Interview with Jane Fearnley, Willow Tree Academy CEO

Schools involved in NEMESIS have found themselves in extraordinary times. Given the situation and pressure they are experiencing, how and why are schools continuing the NEMESIS project? Last month we heard from Willow Tree Academy Head of School, Louise Greenwood, who described how NEMESIS activities were going online. Now Jane Fearnley, CEO and Executive Head Teacher of the academy, explains what life has been like at school and why it has been important to take NEMESIS online. 

Q: Could you paint a bit of a picture of what school life has been like since the lockdown? 

Although society has been in lockdown, schools have been open to the children of NHS staff and keyworkers and vulnerable children. After the lockdown announcement we had a couple of days to prepare and got plans in place very quickly, for home working for staff and children, and also for onsite provision. A main concern at the beginning, and through these recent weeks, was about how we maintain the health of those colleagues who are working in schools, and the children they are working with, and also the parents coming in and out of school. Then there were other practical issues to deal with such as working out how to support children who receive free school meals, and providing food parcels to families.  It’s been very difficult but staff have been amazing. We’ve been very conscious about the mental health of staff, and the pressures they might have at home, and we keep doing check-ins and meetings, as well as more social elements such as staff quiz and bingo, so they still feel part of the team and get to socialise even though we’re working at a distance. That has just helped to lighten the mood, and keep people connected. 

Now we’re moving into a new phase as more children return to school. There’s been a lot of work around how to make sure children are safe and social distancing can be observed as everyone moves around the building. You really feel that these are life and death decisions, it’s been quite a journey. Premises are really important because we have to clean a lot more and how to manage staggered lunches and breaks. Everyone has really risen to the challenge and though we started with returning Year 1 and Year 6, now we’re extending to foundation and Year 5. 

Throughout all this time, we’ve tried to hold on to what Willow Tree would have been doing, so we’ve had a Willow Tree virtual sports day, we’re having a Willow Tree film festival, a parents evening,; giving those opportunities for children and families to be connected. The way we’ve organised ourselves has been really important; we’ve had three teams – strategic, coordination and operational – so each team has had tasks to do, for example, the operational has audited all the home learning and then made recommendations to all teachers. We’ve moved to virtual governance meetings, and for the first time ever had 100% attendance, so we might keep that! The important thing has been to have structure, for staff, children and parents, and to support everyone in the best way we can. 

Q: Given all of those other priorities, why have you felt that continuing and developing NEMESIS has been important?  

What I’ve really noticed, is that when the world has been going out of control, the thing I’ve seen is staff, children and their families using the social innovation competencies that we talk about. We’ve all been using, and focussing on empathy, resilience, responsibility. We’ve all been helping each, whether it’s to be organised at home or work, or if we know of people who are vulnerable and shielding, providing a lifeline, providing that contact for them. In terms of the children, in terms of their skills, we want them to connect, and stay connected. Some children, perhaps because parents have needed to shield themselves, have not gone out at all, maybe not even for a walk, because of the health risks, so we still wanted them to feel like they were part of something, and able to participate, to contribute, to make change happen at home.  

The turning point about how we do this was when we had a project video call, with the NEMESIS consortium, and I just came off that and felt like, instead of talking about the things that weren’t possible, we could be talking about the things that were possible. We are committed to making NEMESIS work, and I want to feel that this wouldn’t stop us, and not stop us achieving developing the skills in staff and children and parents and bringing people together to work on things that are really important to them.  So, then we started asking ‘why can’t we do virtual meetings? and ‘why can’t we engage with parents?’ and ‘why can’t we invite community members or social innovators or experts to join us?’ At that point there was almost so many people working from home it almost got easier!  

Q: What kinds of NEMESIS related things have you been doing?

The first thing we did came about because of the stories we were hearing about older people in care homes. It was in the news about how care home residents were not seeing anyone, they were not able to have family visitors, they were absolutely quarantined. So we started asking, ‘how can we help?’ ‘how can we connect?’ and children we were having the empathy to connect with that issue. So, ideas were discussed about what we could do to make a difference, lessen that social isolation somehow. All four schools got involved in a writing project where we were connected with a care home and starting writing cards to residents. The postcards children made had kind messages of support, and telling something about their lockdown. We got feedback about how valued these messages have been, including from relatives of residents, who have got in touch to say how much it has meant to them that someone is thinking of their loved one. Then we’ve thought about how residents might get some exercise if they’re not able to leave the care home, and children made some gentle keep fit sequences, and seated exercise for people who are not mobile.

After this initial project, others have also started to develop. So there was concern about what was happening to homeless people now many services have been impacted, and we connected with the Safe at Last charity to learn about what the challenges were and co-created fundraising ideas to help raise funds for the charity, who are trying to provide their support. Some other children are doing some growing for a soup kitchen, staff sent seeds, pots and compost and children have been getting involved in that. And we are at the beginning of a fundraising drive for the LEAF centre, which was one of our first projects that came out of a NEMESIS co-creation lab. We’re re-developing an old caretaker’s house at Rockingham to be a nurture base which will help children who have social or emotional needs, and support inclusion. We’ve got a co-creation lab coming up with Kat Cooper from Hubbub, who kindly offered her time to help us think through rewards-based crowdfunding ideas. 

Q: Children recently had an online meeting with pupils in Spain – what was that like? 

A really positive and enjoyable part of NEMESIS for us has been connecting with partners, schools and children across Europe. Continuing to collaborate, share ideas and keep in touch is important to us. We had an online session with our partners in Spain, and their experience has been quite different, because their lockdown was total, schools were completely closed. It was really important for children to share their experiences and what their experience of being and learning at home has been. Some children were saying how much they miss their friends and the structure of school, some children have quite enjoyed being in charge of their own time. Our next step is to connect again and share how we’re developing NEMESIS. The skills and the values that children are developing through this kind of interaction, they’re very important – very human – skills. That’s why, not just despite of everything, but because of everything that’s been going on, that’s why NEMESIS is so important.

NEMESIS in times of COVID: Interview with Louise Greenwood, Head of School at Willow Tree Academy

Most schools around the world have closed in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. According to UNESCO, almost 70% of the world’s student population is affected by the closures. Due to this situation, allPilot 2 NEMESIS schools are also closed. Some of the schools will start with their projects again in September, other schools, as the Willow Tree Academy’ s schools, are continuing with their projects online. In this interview, Louise Greenwood, Head of School at Willow Tree Academy reflects on what school life has been like since lockdown, and the steps she and colleagues are making to take NEMESIS online.  It will be the first in a series of blogs which look at how the school is adapting NEMESIS under COVID. 

What’s school life been like since COVID? 

LG: It has been a lot harder working from home than I initially thought because everyone needs a lot of support and direction as we’ve transitioned from teaching in the school, face to face, to moving to a different way of working. In terms of communicating with staff, I’m doing a lot more of that. In school on a day to day basis you might speak to someone in the corridor and say a quick hello and solve a problem, but now there might be calls using google hangouts as a team, wellbeing phone calls to individual members of staff or messages/emails to respond to daily. From the children’s perspective, we’re providing a structure exactly like they would have in school for example they would have guided reading, literacy and numeracy in the morning and a topic related experience in the afternoon. We have been using Google classroom and Class Dojo, and 90% of the school community has access to that, and for those who don’t have the technology, we’ve been printing off packs and parents have collected them. I do feel pressure because you want to do right by everyone, you want to help the children maintain their learning, you want to support the parents and your colleagues, you’re worried about people’s well-being and mental health and this can be quite demanding on my time, I often complete my work in the evenings to ensure I keep up. It’s a lot to manage. The main success has been the engagement with parents and carers, that connection is somehow stronger now, like we’re all humans going through this same experience. Perhaps it’s because they’re off work too, and so when they’ve needed something, we’ve been able to communicate via Google Classroom or Class Dojo and help them. I think they’ve really valued the amount of support we’re giving now, and how hard we work for the children, and they’re really appreciating that. We do have a number of parents who think that we expecting too much from children however this is a minority. 

We really want to keep the children on board because it has been such a brilliant experience for them. The projects are their projects, so now they really want to know what’s happening.

Why did you want to maintain NEMESIS?

LG: Because I’m running NEMESIS across our school it is easier for me to liaise with teachers and link projects to the topic they are teaching. I’m trying to see how we can maintain the engagement and links that have been built up through the project. We really want to keep the children on board because it has been such a brilliant experience for them. The projects are their projects, so now they really want to know what’s happening. Parental engagement in co-creation labs has not always been strong because parents have been at work, but in the virtual lab parental engagement was very high. Every child who took part had a parent or carer there, listening to everything that was happening, being part of the conversation, that makes a massive difference in terms of them knowing about and understanding what the children and the project are trying to do. We have had positive responses from parents on Twitter regarding our projects and we haven’t had this before. We are now planning our next online meeting for Year 4 and looking where we can go with projects while socially distancing.  

What did you decide to do?

LG: Jane (Fearnley, Willow Tree Academy Executive Head Teacher), had the initial call with the NEMESIS partnership and came away with wanting to think about how to maintain social innovation and social interaction whilst the country is social distancing. We’ve noticed how the country has come together to support each other and so we wanted to keep this very socially focussed project going, because it is something that brings different people together. We’re using a zoom as a method to communicate with people outside of Willow Tree and for safeguarding purposes it doesn’t give our email addresses to parents/children, so thought we could use this as a method to communicate with children and parents at home, but link in with our NEMESIS community partner, Cllr Rob Elliot, and also John Capper from Oakworth Homes, who is part of the LEAF project which was evolving through earlier co-creation labs. We decided to run a virtual co-creation lab, based around what learning could come out of the LEAF project, and what children thought they could learn about, through listening and asking questions in the lab. 

How did you organise it? 

LG: I set up a zoom call on my own zoom account and copied the link to everyone in the meeting. The main concern there was about security and providing a link that could only be accessed once by everyone. I had some meetings with Y5 colleagues and planned an agenda for the meeting, which was pretty straightforward and then to keep things simple I targeted some children and parents to take part. In future labs, we are going to ask for volunteers, and compare what the experience is like.  In total there was myself, Jane and 3 Y5 class teachers, Cllr Rob Elliot, local councillor and John Cappa, who owns Oakworth Homes, and then we had two children and two parent or carers from every class (6 children and 6 parents in total). 

We had an agenda, everyone introduced themselves, from the left to the right on the zoom screen. Then Jane gave an update in terms of the LEAF project and what’s happening on site and where we’re up to with the project. Then John talked about what his company does, all the different job roles in the company and how the children can get involved and what they can learn. John’s company is doing the timber frame, but there is so much that goes with that, the frame itself, how it’s constructed, how its treated so it doesn’t rot, the type of wood that is imported and how its transported from Scandinavia, how the business works and the different roles such as the estimating team, the designers and the site construction and that they hire 16-18-year-olds as apprentices. The children were fascinated because when you think of a building company you think about what is happening on a building site, but not about everything behind the scenes. 

What would you advise if a teacher was going to try this? 

LG: We sent every child/parent who was participating some questions so that they wouldn’t get flustered when it came to the open discussion and could have something to ask, even if they couldn’t think of something on the spot. That kept the conversation flowing and meant everyone had a question they could ask. If we were going to do it again, we’d use an activity out of the NEMESIS resource bank as an icebreaker and send that by email before so people were prepared. We did do introductions, but it would have been nice to just add something silly like your favourite colour or your favourite food or whatever, to get to know each other a bit more and make it more personal. 

The next step is that the class teacher is going to open up a discussion in Google classroom and the participating children are going to feedback what happened and then other ideas will come from the rest of the class.

What’s next?

LG: Through this co-lab that we just ran, children’s ideas showed that they were keen to look at every aspect of John’s company so that through the project they learn about jobs and employment. The next step is that the class teacher is going to open up a discussion in Google classroom and the participating children are going to feedback what happened and then other ideas will come from the rest of the class. For other classes, before lockdown different year groups had chosen different a focus, for example there was a class wanting to take some social action around homelessness, and what’s interesting is that many homeless have been taken off the street, I imagine the children will be asking, if that happened now, why wasn’t it possible before? The main idea of these virtual labs is to maintain children’s connection to the projects, and to keep them thinking, in this changed world, how can we be working together, and what can we be doing to make things better. Each year group has a focus project and we are looking at ways to continue engagement as this has dropped after the Easter Holiday. We are hoping that this is due to the weather and parents are going outside into their garden or taking daily walks. Through our tight safeguarding policy and plan we contact every parent who hasn’t engaged, so through an exciting opportunity like NEMESIS we are hoping we can increase involvement. 

Most schools around the world have closed in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the UNESCO, almost 70% of the world’s student population is affected by the closures. Due to this situation, all NEMESIS schools of Pilot 2 are also closed. Some of the schools will start with their projects again in September, other schools, as the Willow Tree Academy’ s schools, are continuing with their projects via online. 

In this interview, Louise Greenwood, Head of School at Willow Tree Academy reflects on what school life has been like since lockdown, and the steps she and colleagues are making to take NEMESIS online.  It will be the first in a series of blogs which look at how the school is adapting NEMESIS under COVID. 

What’s school life been like since COVID? 

LG: It has been a lot harder working from home than I initially thought because everyone needs a lot of support and direction as we’ve transitioned from teaching in the school, face to face, to moving to a different way of working. In terms of communicating with staff, I’m doing a lot more of that. In school on a day to day basis you might speak to someone in the corridor and say a quick hello and solve a problem, but now there might be calls using google hangouts as a team, wellbeing phone calls to individual members of staff or messages/emails to respond to daily. From the children’s perspective, we’re providing a structure exactly like they would have in school for example they would have guided reading, literacy and numeracy in the morning and a topic related experience in the afternoon. We have been using Google classroom and Class Dojo, and 90% of the school community has access to that, and for those who don’t have the technology, we’ve been printing off packs and parents have collected them. I do feel pressure because you want to do right by everyone, you want to help the children maintain their learning, you want to support the parents and your colleagues, you’re worried about people’s well-being and mental health and this can be quite demanding on my time, I often complete my work in the evenings to ensure I keep up. It’s a lot to manage. The main success has been the engagement with parents and carers, that connection is somehow stronger now, like we’re all humans going through this same experience. Perhaps it’s because they’re off work too, and so when they’ve needed something, we’ve been able to communicate via Google Classroom or Class Dojo and help them. I think they’ve really valued the amount of support we’re giving now, and how hard we work for the children, and they’re really appreciating that. We do have a number of parents who think that we expecting too much from children however this is a minority. 

We really want to keep the children on board because it has been such a brilliant experience for them. The projects are their projects, so now they really want to know what’s happening.

Why did you want to maintain NEMESIS?

LG: Because I’m running NEMESIS across our school it is easier for me to liaise with teachers and link projects to the topic they are teaching. I’m trying to see how we can maintain the engagement and links that have been built up through the project. We really want to keep the children on board because it has been such a brilliant experience for them. The projects are their projects, so now they really want to know what’s happening. Parental engagement in co-creation labs has not always been strong because parents have been at work, but in the virtual lab parental engagement was very high. Every child who took part had a parent or carer there, listening to everything that was happening, being part of the conversation, that makes a massive difference in terms of them knowing about and understanding what the children and the project are trying to do. We have had positive responses from parents on Twitter regarding our projects and we haven’t had this before. We are now planning our next online meeting for Year 4 and looking where we can go with projects while socially distancing.  

What did you decide to do?

LG: Jane (Fearnley, Willow Tree Academy Executive Head Teacher), had the initial call with the NEMESIS partnership and came away with wanting to think about how to maintain social innovation and social interaction whilst the country is social distancing. We’ve noticed how the country has come together to support each other and so we wanted to keep this very socially focussed project going, because it is something that brings different people together. We’re using a zoom as a method to communicate with people outside of Willow Tree and for safeguarding purposes it doesn’t give our email addresses to parents/children, so thought we could use this as a method to communicate with children and parents at home, but link in with our NEMESIS community partner, Cllr Rob Elliot, and also John Capper from Oakworth Homes, who is part of the LEAF project which was evolving through earlier co-creation labs. We decided to run a virtual co-creation lab, based around what learning could come out of the LEAF project, and what children thought they could learn about, through listening and asking questions in the lab. 

How did you organise it? 

LG: I set up a zoom call on my own zoom account and copied the link to everyone in the meeting. The main concern there was about security and providing a link that could only be accessed once by everyone. I had some meetings with Y5 colleagues and planned an agenda for the meeting, which was pretty straightforward and then to keep things simple I targeted some children and parents to take part. In future labs, we are going to ask for volunteers, and compare what the experience is like.  In total there was myself, Jane and 3 Y5 class teachers, Cllr Rob Elliot, local councillor and John Cappa, who owns Oakworth Homes, and then we had two children and two parent or carers from every class (6 children and 6 parents in total). 

We had an agenda, everyone introduced themselves, from the left to the right on the zoom screen. Then Jane gave an update in terms of the LEAF project and what’s happening on site and where we’re up to with the project. Then John talked about what his company does, all the different job roles in the company and how the children can get involved and what they can learn. John’s company is doing the timber frame, but there is so much that goes with that, the frame itself, how it’s constructed, how its treated so it doesn’t rot, the type of wood that is imported and how its transported from Scandinavia, how the business works and the different roles such as the estimating team, the designers and the site construction and that they hire 16-18-year-olds as apprentices. The children were fascinated because when you think of a building company you think about what is happening on a building site, but not about everything behind the scenes. 

What would you advise if a teacher was going to try this? 

LG: We sent every child/parent who was participating some questions so that they wouldn’t get flustered when it came to the open discussion and could have something to ask, even if they couldn’t think of something on the spot. That kept the conversation flowing and meant everyone had a question they could ask. If we were going to do it again, we’d use an activity out of the NEMESIS resource bank as an icebreaker and send that by email before so people were prepared. We did do introductions, but it would have been nice to just add something silly like your favourite colour or your favourite food or whatever, to get to know each other a bit more and make it more personal. 

The next step is that the class teacher is going to open up a discussion in Google classroom and the participating children are going to feedback what happened and then other ideas will come from the rest of the class.

What’s next?

LG: Through this co-lab that we just ran, children’s ideas showed that they were keen to look at every aspect of John’s company so that through the project they learn about jobs and employment. The next step is that the class teacher is going to open up a discussion in Google classroom and the participating children are going to feedback what happened and then other ideas will come from the rest of the class. For other classes, before lockdown different year groups had chosen different a focus, for example there was a class wanting to take some social action around homelessness, and what’s interesting is that many homeless have been taken off the street, I imagine the children will be asking, if that happened now, why wasn’t it possible before? The main idea of these virtual labs is to maintain children’s connection to the projects, and to keep them thinking, in this changed world, how can we be working together, and what can we be doing to make things better. Each year group has a focus project and we are looking at ways to continue engagement as this has dropped after the Easter Holiday. We are hoping that this is due to the weather and parents are going outside into their garden or taking daily walks. Through our tight safeguarding policy and plan we contact every parent who hasn’t engaged, so through an exciting opportunity like NEMESIS we are hoping we can increase involvement. 

The student experience of NEMESIS: cultivating self-positivity in the classroom

Having had the privilege to take part in and closely observe pilot period 1 of NEMESIS at Rockingham Junior and Infant School, I realise how important the power of self-positivity is. We all know what it means to be positive, and how this can sometimes be a struggle. So when ‘positivity’ becomes an intrinsic part of someone’s mentality, it can be extremely powerful. While ‘self-positivity’ may not be an element you can tap into in every part of your life, that does not mean it is not attainable. Even if you are only experiencing positivity in one aspect of it, this can be harnessed to permeate your whole mindset!

A new driving force

‘One parent noted that it made her son feel worthy – a powerful sentiment – which I know from my teaching career can increase motivation, engagement and feeling good about oneself.’

During the 9 month NEMESIS project, children took the lead in restoring the caretaker’s house at their school. The trends in behaviour visible over the course of this project were complex and intriguing to say the least! It seemed that the children’s motivation within the programme came from being given ownership over the project. Activities such as teaching adults how to record on tablets encouraged the students to see how valuable and important their work and ideas truly were. One parent noted that it made her son feel worthy – a powerful sentiment – which I know from my teaching career can increase motivation, engagement and feeling good about oneself.

Praise can take many forms

NEMESIS gives students a voice and we can make decisions” – a NEMESIS student.

As a teacher, I also understand that different forms of praise must be given depending on the child and situation in question. The children’s participation in the NEMESIS project, however, seemed to create a form of praise all of its own. The pupils were left feeling “valued, worthy and important“. This is because, in getting the chance to take charge of the operation themselves, they were not only being listened to… but heard! They were not merely dismissed as token children. As one 9 year old boy commented: “NEMESIS gives students a voice and we can make decisions.” The fact that their decisions were taken seriously became an implicit form of praise – implicit because praise didn’t always have to be verbal. Carrying out the ideas that the children had come up with was praise enough. As the adage goes ‘actions speak louder than words.’

Real life = real feelings

Working on something real to create a positive outcome for yourself and others brings about a sense of achievement, happiness and positivity. Knowing the project was really happening, and not just an abstract concept to write about in class, had a significant impact on the children: ‘it was interesting because we got to see the proper house,’ ‘I really like the house and hope it will be finished,’ ‘it’s not how I thought it would be – it’s bigger and better. Students would be comfy here.’ Children could take pride in the knowledge they were doing good for themselves and others. The contribution that they were making acted as motivation. It encouraged them to carry on…

 

Students at Rockingham School, In Sheffield (UK)

That communal spirit

“I can help alongside other people.”

Working with children and adults of all different ages and backgrounds was a novelty for the students of Rockingham. Despite the Junior and Infant school being a newcomer to the programme, however, the educational programme proved to be a resounding success. The collective feeling of working together towards something positive nurtured good feelings and positive results as the children, and adults, saw how two, three, four… (you see where I’m going with this) minds are better than one! The children all said that they enjoyed working with people more as the project went on while one adult noted the joint collaborative effort to be “very powerful.” It seems it’s not only the children that are motivated by this shared approach to improving the world.

All these important things, feeling empowered, valued, listened to and important, interlink in complex ways, mirroring the complexity of the human mind to bring about that wonderful feeling of positivity. The combination of emotional, cognitive, behavioural and agentic engagement was different in every child, usually comprising more than one element, to produce a combination that made them feel good. This, when sustained over time, can become innate in the child – making them happier, more motivated learners. Imagine if all education made you feel this good!

Author: Jen Wall

Author’s note: the research conducted was on a small group of 7 children aged 6 – 11 years old hence my qualitative findings are not generalisable. I am not suggesting this would be the same for everyone, merely sharing initial insights gleaned from my research.


NEMESIS is a Horizon 2020 project bringing together education and social innovation to empower the changemakers of tomorrow. The project started in 2018 and it will continue until 2021. At the moment there are ten schools involved from five European countries and a second pilot will start in September 2019, for which we invite more schools.

 Do you want to learn about other schools projects in NEMESIS? Click here.

Are you a school willing to learn more about NEMESIS or thinking about joining the project? Feel free to surf the web and drop us a line (hello@nemesis-edu.eu) or fill our contact form.

Are you a social innovator who – as those mentioned here- would like to collaborate with the schools in your area? Click here for more info on how to become a mentor

NEMESIS and the unexpected

In the Co-creation Labs at Rockingham Junior and Infant School the process is bringing up some exciting possibilities and activities that we hadn’t bargained for.  One idea that a 10 year old (Year 6) voiced about feeling intimidated by older children when he walks to the local shop has led to a whole off shoot project.  The Y6s have made a video to show the older children so they can explain how they feel and talk about how this could be tackled, perhaps just through simply getting to know the older children.  Now, because these Year 6 children have become involved in the project, they support the younger children, as one 10 year old girl said – ‘I don’t take part directly but indirectly by helping the younger children’.

Louise Greenwood, the school leader, has noticed how this helps the Y6s develop their empathy for the younger children. So, the development of social innovation competences happens not only through direct input by the Lab facilitator but through the children working together – intergenerational collaboration can take place between children of different ages, not just adults and children. Seeing this success has prompted Louise to consider having older children involved from the beginning in the future to see how the relationships develop and whether the younger children would seek out the older children outside of the Lab for support or friendship. This video is going to be put to further good use by linking in with one of the school’s existing initiatives called Philosophy for Children.

The video can be used in class with a range of age groups to promote reflection and discussion about the issues it addresses which would develop social innovation competences such as empathy and collective and creative problem solving.  So, a learning resource created by children that originated from a social challenge experienced by children is permeating the curriculum helping a wider range of young people to develop their SI competences and be made aware of local community issues.  The ideas and people involved are snowballing!

An interesting development that has been noted by the local rector as well as school staff is the difference in the children’s confidence. Their presenting skills and interaction with adults are improving, the children’s body language is more open and they now make eye contact with the adults. Today the children interviewed the adults and recorded them on tablets.  After helping the adults operate the tablets, they took part and children as young as 6 were confident and using appropriate face and body language as if they were trained reporters!

Another insight mentioned by the school governor was how useful it is to refresh their knowledge of the issues affecting children and how they make them feel, as there are not many forums for this. Hence, really being able to listen to and engage in dialogue the children is seen as a strength of the Co-creation Labs. Additionally, many of the adults live further afield and aren’t aware of the social issues in the local area of the schools so talking to the children in the Labs enables them to learn about any challenges and use the perspectives of the children to help address them.

As a Y6 girl astutely mentioned – “adults have a wider perspective, so the children bring their imagination and the adults makes sense of it.” One school governor of Herringthorpe Junior School said that she felt she had the power to effect change alongside all the actors in the Lab and one Y6 girl reiterated this sentiment, saying that she feels she can make a difference but only when part of a bigger group, as in the NEMESIS project.  The benefits of a collective mindset that’s happening within the Labs is being experienced by children and adults alike.

At Willow Tree Academy one of the 6 life skills that are practised in every lesson is problem solving and this is evident when observing the Co-creation Labs.  Two boys were given the task of coming up with ideas for a multi-functional room and, without prompting, were thinking of ways to keep any technology safe.  They then thought that having chairs without wheels for people to use would be less chaotic and that chairs like you have in a classroom could be good for this as long as they had some cushioning in case people fall or walk into the chair.  The boys then began looking at the chairs they were sitting on and talking about where the cushioning would go. Seeing such problem solving lead to creative prototyping in less than a minute was fascinating and it’s great to see how NEMESIS can support the existing skills approach of the school.

Having a real purpose is helping the youngsters with their writing skills as often when asked to write about an abstract concept it can be hard for them to engage but NEMESIS provides a tangible reason to write.  The children understand the project and have taken ownership of their ideas to drive the project forward so they are more motivated to write about it because it feels personal, important and relevant.  The interaction with real places, people and events helps their understanding which makes the writing easier and more enjoyable.

On a personal level, what struck me the most is how NEMESIS can be tailored to support different children in very different ways from pastoral nurture to competence development and how important it is to know the children well to be able to use NEMESIS as such focused, inclusive intervention.