Frequently asked questions

We recommend that the programme is used for primary-aged children, particularly KS2. Many of the themes and session plans could be adapted for younger children and the activities could be supported, differentiated, and simplified for KS1, but it is the level of discussion and facilitation skills of the ELSA and/or Pastoral TA or facilitating adult who would be able to adjust the language and develop the discussion to the level of the children’s understanding and need.

Whilst aimed at primary children, we believe that the resource would be very suitable and accessible for year 7 children in middle schools or as part of small group nurture intervention for transition work from year 6 to year 7. Many children who have missed the opportunity for enhanced support around their emotional health and wellbeing when going onto secondary would still benefit from this opportunity at an intervention level.

Whilst the Hamish & Milo wellbeing intervention programme has been written for primary aged children, we believe it would still be relevant and suitable for children in year 7 as part of a small group intervention or transition programme. Children who may have missed the opportunity for enhanced small group intervention around their emotional wellbeing and mental health at year 7 would benefit from the range of activities, discussion and approach within this programme.

We recommend that these are small group intervention programmes. While we believe the content would be valuable for all children, they are most effective as small group or nurture group early intervention SEMH programmes, to support low-level emerging mental health needs. They have been written and created for small groups of children who need an enhanced approach and the opportunity to help them to make sense of their emotions and experiences. Often these small groups will be for children who need an enhanced level of support and care to help them feel valued, special and able to thrive more readily in school.

The various emotion theme programmes are intended to be used for small nurture groups but it may be that 1-1 may be more appropriate in some circumstances. It is therefore possible for the intervention to be run 1-1 for a child who may have a more acute or immediate need or who may need enhanced special time with an ELSA or pastoral TA. For some children, a small group may simply be too overwhelming and they need a more individualised approach. The materials can be easily adapted and used 1-1 as part of an intervention programme.

The groups are intended to be run with up to six children so that there is ample opportunity for children to be heard and involved in the discussion and activities. The groups aim to help children feel a sense of belonging and to strengthen or find new friendships. Having a small group can really enable this to happen.

It is also important to ensure that the pastoral staff member running the group is able to give time to each child and has space to review and notice how each child is responding, so it’s important to keep the group to a manageable size. Each of the emotion theme resource packs includes enough additional resources such as the sock puppets and wellbeing journals for six children, with an extra sock puppet for the facilitating adult. The resources can be repeatedly re-used to help more groups of children. You can also purchase additional bundles from just £1.30 per child.

There may be incidences where an individual child may have 1-1 intervention and this may be important for a range of reasons and can be decided by the pastoral staff member and SENCO.

Understanding the needs of children and their experiences is key in how you might select children for the groups.

Some children will have presenting behaviours that suggest they may benefit from an intervention approach and it may be part of an EHCP or individualised support plan that intervention would be helpful. Parents/carers or teachers may raise awareness or concern for a child and it may be that an intervention group would help. The SENCO and pastoral staff member would perhaps be best placed to think about the needs of individual children, the potential group dynamics and to organise the children into whichever group may be most beneficial.

Using our Child Wellbeing Profiles may help to identify levels of need for specific children and it would be important to monitor and review the intervention programme in discussion with parents/carers/teachers or the member of staff running the group to ensure the best fit for children. Talking to children about what they would like and how they feel is important too and can help them to feel involved in important decisions about them.

We also have Compass a tool and checklist to identify individual child strengths and areas of need for social and emotional skill development to signpost towards the best Hamish & Milo Wellbeing Intervention programme or emotion theme for a child.

Our sock puppets are intrinsic to the programme as a way of helping children to talk about, recognise and reflect on their feelings and experiences. They are used as a therapeutic distancing tool to help children feel safe to talk about feelings and experiences. We encourage each child to make their own with our carefully explained sock puppet kits and instruction cards that come with the programme and each theme. However, we do recognise that not all children may like puppets and might prefer not to use them. Or they might like to use other puppets for the same purpose. However, we hope you love our sock puppets as much as we do!

We are committed to supporting all pastoral staff to deliver our programmes effectively and with awareness of the complexity of mental health needs that children experience. We, therefore, offer a range of free training to equip staff with greater confidence and conviction to deliver the intervention programmes effectively and with compassion, care, insight and awareness.

We offer Discovery Sessions – Free 30-minute webinars, and Explorer Sessions – Free 90-minute training webinars.

We also offer Expedition Sessions – training that is specific to each emotion theme programme that provides the theory, approach and information on the content and delivery. They cost £125 for up to four staff members.

We can also provide specific training to suit the needs of individual schools, clusters of schools, or Multi-Academy Trusts. This can be for whole school settings, groups of pastoral staff or mental health leads.

We offer Supervision Hub sessions to support pastoral staff in their work as we believe it’s vital that staff feel supported and valued and can reflect and talk with their peers about their experiences, as well as review the impact of the programme. These collaborative sessions offer staff the chance to share their experiences, ask questions and gain advice and insight.

We also provide free Navigator Training fortnightly, and free Families Together programme training.

We also offer Hamish & Milo Voyager a five-day ‘Level 3 Wellbeing in Education Award’ accredited by NCFE.

We recommend that the Hamish & Milo programme is run by pastoral staff: ELSAs, nurture group leaders, pastoral TAs, school counsellors, SENCOs or mental health professionals or therapists.

The programme needs to be run ideally by adults who have an awareness of mental health and have had a level of training in safeguarding, mental health and wellbeing. We offer free training sessions to develop adults’ skills in understanding the content, theory and approach and this can be accessed through our website.

Each emotion theme programme consists of ten sessions of approximately 40 minutes to be run weekly during a term. We would love to recommend an hour for each session but recognise that time in school is tight. Facilitating pastoral staff may need some preparation time to gather resources but the plans are complete so there is no actual planning time needed, as long as staff have read through and are familiar with the content of the session prior to delivering it. They may also need some administrative time to reflect on the children and review progress using the wellbeing profiles. This would need to be a consideration in running the programme.

The Hamish & Milo programme enables children to talk about sensitive feelings and experiences with an empathic and caring adult and sometimes there may be disclosures or concerns that arise. We totally promote and expect that safeguarding policies and practices in schools are followed and that designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) are made aware and appropriate action taken and protocols followed. The safety and wellbeing of all children are paramount to our whole approach and to our beliefs. We also recommend that facilitating staff have received training in safeguarding and are clear about policy and practice within their school.

Mental health and wellbeing are at the heart of the Hamish & Milo SEL and SEMH programmes. The ten different emotion theme programmes aim to support some of the main areas of emotional health that children may face and that might be difficult for them to manage. Our SEMH programmes are targeted at early intervention for low-level or emerging mental health needs and to help alleviate escalation or the need for referral to external services. Read our research paper, in collaboration with the University of Bath on the evidenced outcomes for children who partake in the programme.

Sometimes children need the opportunity to be part of a small group who may be experiencing similar situations or feelings. Being in a small group can give them reassurance that they are not alone and an enhanced sense of belonging. Being with an empathic and emotionally aware adult who can facilitate discussion and help children to understand their experiences can be beneficial to children’s wellbeing. Sharing their thoughts and feelings can help children to feel supported, reassured and emotionally held. They may develop new friendships within the group process and this can be a lifeline to children who may be feeling isolated or alone in their experiences. A planned and focused intervention can be powerful in alleviating emerging or early emotional needs.