New to Grow Your Mind?
it begins with a story
Grow Your Mind is different from other wellbeing programs because it ALL begins with a story.
On this page you will find a step by step way to introduce the program and a plan for continuing it into the future.
However, to inspire students and to give purpose to every positive mental health habit children will learn - it needs a story! Hence, the animals in the brain AND the question:
Who brushed their teeth this morning?!
Have a read of the Welcome to Grow Your Mind at School e-book to understand this and more.
to get your head into gear:
Read:
The Grow Your Mind Teaching Overview
Themes, Key Inquiry questions and Links to relevant GYM resources:
See sample scope and sequence ideas from a range of schools
Watch:
A range of videos walking you through ways to use Grow Your Mind. Hear from the writer of all the educational content as well as educators on the ground implementing the program.
structuring your week:
During your first term of introducing Grow Your Mind we suggest you schedule:
1 x explicit learning session (30-45 minutes)
1 x character strength focus (5 minutes)
1- 5 micro wellbeing moment using Grab 5 (less than 5 minutes)
How do i begin?:
We have explicit introductory lessons for you to use.
Many schools have wanted to begin with a BANG though! And have held a Grow Your Mind day or morning.
They have listened to an episode from the podcast, watched the animation, had a treasure hunt to find the animals and more. You do you!
Here are some steps if you wish to hold a morning or day. Scroll down to find the introductory lessons if you wish to skip ahead and begin!
steps to start the program:
Step 1:
Show your students from all ages the Grow Your Mind animation
Step 2:
Watch this short riddle clip. See if your students can answer it.
After watching the video, complete the think/pair and share call to action on the final slides.
Explain that we are ALL on a mental health continuum. Grow Your Mind is about helping students, staff and families be on the coping, well and then flourishing end of the continuum! Refer to this continuum throughout the wellbeing journey.*
Step 3:
Use the Welcome to Grow Your Mind book to introduce over time the main idea behind each resource. You could use the first 22 pages to introduce the program and make it your own Step 1.
Step 4:
Listen to the First Episode of the Grow Your Mind podcast
And/or listen to the First Episode of Season 2 of The Grow Your Mind Podcast (new animal introduced)
Download student reflection journals:
Episode 1 Season 1 - (7-9) and (9-12)
Step 5:
Year 3 - 6 Think - Pair - Share these questions:
Mental health
Do you think everyone has mental health? Yes/no and why/why not?
If you think we all have it, can we all learn to look after it? Why/why not?
Think Pair Share
THINK: What sort of things do you do that boosts your mental health? (refer to Take Care of Your Mind poster if needing some ideas)
PAIR: Listen to what your partner does for their mental health
SHARE: With the class
Animals in the brain
Which animal do you like the best? Why?
Which animal do you think you need to wake up this term at school? Or quieten down a little?
K - 2 Draw - what things do you currently do to look after your mental health.
Repeat both of these tasks at the end of term and compare knowledge and awareness.
Introductory lessons:
Sample emails to walk you through each session. We wrote this to guide our schools taking part in a research project. This occurred during lockdown and as such some of the weeks will not match our introductory lessons exactly.
WEEK 1 & 2 Introducing Grow Your Mind
WEEK 3 - Shark and dolphin thinking
WEEK 4 - Stuff ups take courage
WEEK 5 - Bravery and affirmations
WEEK 6 - Kindness and compassion
WEEK 7 - Healthy friendships and self-regulation
WEEK 8 - Respectful relationships and equality
Grow Your Mind schools sharing their work!
What happens after the introductory lessons?
Option #1: Build your own continuum of learning using our templates as a guide
Option #2: Follow our step by step Year 1 - Year 6 continuum of learning
Google Link - our themed guide for Year 1 -6 with activities and learning sessions
PDF version - to the above
Option #3: Use the podcast, one of our units of work and Guess Who videos across year levels
Listen to the Grow Your Mind podcast and complete podcast lesson plans + resource list and choose an episode that your students may need or be interested in. If you wanted to scope and sequence these episodes you could organise for Year 4 (Season 1) Year 5 (Season 2) Year 6 (Season 3)
Choose to do a unit of work on a particular wellbeing topic
Watch and complete learning activities using the Guess Who video lessons
Pick a sample scope and sequence to follow from a range of schools
Option #4: Pick a tile and focus on it for a term
Option #5: Use our self-paced journals:
Complete simple worksheets + activities for each age level. You will also find echoes of these questions, reflections and tasks in the student self-paced journals + podcast reflection journals. * NB you could begin with every student doing the introductory lessons together instead at this point. Up to you!
* Remember we also have podcast journals and podcast lesson plans + resource list and choose an episode that your students may need or be interested in
Super useful documents:
Links to the curriculum
Australian Curriculum
Health and Physical Education
Focus Areas
Whole school approach - the main idea
At Grow Your Mind we believe that effective wellbeing needs to be a whole school approach. We have a language of wellbeing and positive mental health that students, school staff and families can use. We also know that schools are busy places. We highlighted relevant parts of both the Australian and NSW curriculum to showcase how you can use the content of Grow Your Mind explicitly in your classroom during mandated health curriculum hours. However, we strongly encourage you as a school to refer to the resources in micro moments, to offer cross curriculum opportunities so as to make the wellbeing messages authentic and applicable AND to use the language of flourishing we have provided as part of your every day interactions.
Shout it loud and proud with one of our "We are a Grow Your Mind school" banner:
Download the file here and take it to your local printer, like Officeworks. Print size is 1800 x 1000mm. Be sure to tell your printer that this is an outdoor banner.
*NB Schools and Educators:
* Ensure your school is equipped with the knowledge of how best to seek help for students who are struggling or unwell. Grow Your Mind is a prevention and education program. We therefore focus on arming students and staff members with the skills to cope, feel well and thrive. Organisations such as the Kidshelpline 1800 55 1800 as well as Beyond Blue 1800 22 4636 are a fantastic place to start.
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