The Big Talks for Little People Mental Health Classroom Module is a primary school kit which aims to help school students better understand their mental health and enhance their well-being. This booklet provides a theoretical background to program constructs and includes suggested activities for 6 lessons of 35-40 minutes each.

The program comprises 6 lessons incorporating 6 topics on mental health for young children. (dp)

Recommended Learning Strategies will generally be structured in two parts. It is intended for use in primary schools for all students but with a particular emphasis on students who have experienced trauma or challenges within their own mental health and wellbeing including school bullying. Teachers will be able to use a digital platform to run the 6-lesson module in their classrooms. The focus would be on early intervention and prevention for children in each class. The digital module is designed to be updated in response to new events eg COVID-19 – bushfires. The 6 lesson downloadable outlines are accompanied by a digital animation intended to promote classroom discussion.

Each lesson comprises a significant element of social and emotional learning. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) highlights the role of resilient and inclusive classrooms which provide new opportunities for group membership and creation of effective learning environments. In facilitating inclusion, it is important that all class members as well as their teachers develop the skills to understand one another, and to communicate and work together effectively.

These skills are important to all children, both children with special needs and to those without, in terms of overall social development, perceptions of belonging, and promotion of overall mental wellness, as well as mitigation of the development of mental illness.

Social emotional learning (SEL) is aimed at developing these skills and is generally defined as a process by which individuals learn to understand and manage their own feelings, understand and empathise with the feelings of others, communicate, resolve conflicts effectively, respect others, and develop healthy relationships.

Five competencies that are generally agreed to be core to Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) include.