Hamish & Milo Champion Training & Supervision

We are committed to supporting all mental health champions: pastoral staff, ELSAs, SENCOs and nurture group leads to deliver our wellbeing programmes effectively and with awareness of the complexity of mental health needs that children experience.

We offer a range of ‘Champion training’ with the goal to equip pastoral staff with greater confidence and conviction to deliver the intervention programmes effectively and with compassion, care, insight and awareness.

We believe that support and care for mental health champions, as the trusted adults, is important too. We know that mental health champions delivering wellbeing intervention often have to respond, contain and support children with complex and/or emerging mental health needs. Support for the adults is absolutely essential so that they are able to ‘hold steady’ and respond in ways that support the child through the situation or experience whilst being self-aware and contained themselves. We encourage schools to have wellbeing policies for staff and lines of support through pastoral teams and leadership and we advocate for supervision.

Hamish & Milo Training

Each 30-minute Discovery Session will cover the rationale, approach and framework behind the Hamish & Milo wellbeing resources. We cover;

  • Principles and ethos behind the programme
  • The emotion themes – range and content
  • Measuring the impact of wellbeing intervention
  • Supporting resources of the intervention programme
We run regular free Explorer Sessions that are a deeper look at the Hamish & Milo programme, approach and implementation for the pastoral staff facilitating the intervention groups.

The 90-minute sessions provide information as well as an opportunity for questions. They highlight and outline;

  • Principles and ethos behind the programme
  • Context for children’s emotional and mental wellbeing and long-term impact
  • Understanding of the presenting emotional behaviours and the underlying unmet needs
  • Significance for children to feel heard, validated and connected
  • Contents of the programme in terms of the different themes and insights
  • Contents within each programme and the supporting materials
  • The importance and therapeutic approach in using the sock puppet pets
  • How to measure impact using the wellbeing profiles
  • Role and approach of the facilitating trusted adults
  • Principles and practice of implementation, including safeguarding.

Our Expedition Sessions are a deep dive into each of the individual emotion theme packs. We look at the depth of the mental health context as well as the theme activities approach, and content so that facilitating staff, mental health leads, pastoral staff are well informed and confident to support the children in their care.

Each Expedition Session is £125 for up to four staff members.

The sessions cover:

  • The context for children’s mental health in relation to the key theme
  • Contents and approach of the specific theme pack
  • The session plans and the activities
  • Insights and psychoeducation to help children make sense of their experiences
  • The role of the adult in helping children to feel happier, heard and connected
  • How to use the wellbeing profiles to understand presenting behaviours and to measure impact
  • The importance of the sock puppet pets and how to use them effectively.

We offer supervision hub sessions to support pastoral staff in their work with the children and group experiences. We believe it’s vital that staff feel supported and valued and can reflect and talk with their peers on their experiences, as well as review the impact of the programme.

It’s a collaborative session that offers staff the chance to share their experiences, ask questions and gain advice and insight.

  • Sessions are facilitated online via Zoom
  • Sessions are run as small groups of up to 8 participants
  • Sessions can be booked termly or half-termly in packages of three or six sessions across the year.

We run regular free 60-minute live Navigating Navigator webinars for training, new functionality and questions about using Navigator. Each session is hosted by Hamish & Milo author Clare Williams with Navigator specialist Anne Waddicor on hand throughout.

Navigating Navigator will be run fortnightly on a Wednesday between 2:30pm – 3:30pm.

  • Drop in style format with no commitment to attend for the full 60-minutes
  • Ask questions relating to your Navigator dashboard
  • Receive ongoing help and support
  • Attend as many fortnightly sessions as you need
  • See new updates and features as they are introduced to the platform

This course aims to develop the knowledge and awareness of Hamish & Milo practitioners facilitating the programme. It provides insights into the context and foundational theoretical concepts of the resources. The theory is woven around the the Hamish & Milo programme themes providing a deeper understanding of the development of and support required for children’s optimal social and emotional health and wellbeing.

Voyager is a ‘Level 3 Wellbeing in Education Award’ accredited by NCFE and recognises the depth of professional development and celebrates achievement.

  • All educational practitioners who support children’s social and emotional development would benefit from this qualification: TAs and LSAs, ELSAs/Pupil Wellbeing Workers, Nurture Leads, Family Support Workers and SENCOs.
  • A five-day course running across a term.
  • Course is delivered online and consists of direct teaching presentations; group tasks and discussion; mentoring; and independent assessment tasks.
  • Ongoing assessment by the trainers and mentoring through group activities and discussion.
  • All Champions receive a Learning Journal to support their learning and a Reflection & Assessment Journal for self-reflection and work-based tasks.
  • On completion of Voyager, Champions will receive their accreditation certificate endorsed by NCFE, AAL and Hamish & Milo.

£850 per delegate for the five-day course.

We can 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.

The framework for this training will be based upon our Discovery and Explorer training sessions and can include:

  • School culture and the part it plays in the context of emotional health and wellbeing
  • The Hamish & Milo programme principles, content, approach and implementation with a focus on how to measure impact and the need for whole school staff awareness for referral, signposting and review
  • Understanding the presenting emotional behaviours and the underlying unmet needs
  • Significance for all children to feel heard, validated and connected
  • Development of an emotions curriculum alongside PSHE
  • The role of all adults in building secure and connected relationships with children in their care.

We are happy to discuss bespoke packages with you. Please email hello@hamishandmilo.org for more information.

TA and ELSA Accredited Training Voyager

If you want any advice call us on 01202 942222 or email hello@hamishandmilo.org