School Support
We provide support within local primary schools, offering diverse options that meet your pupils needs.
At Bright Emotions we are passionate about bridging the gap in services, therefore we are keen to provide support for children on waiting/assessment lists or not meeting the threshold for other services.
We can offer early intervention emotional literacy and therapeutic programmes for individuals, groups and whole classes in KS1 and above.
Bright Emotions are here to help your school develop a holistic and proactive approach to well-being.
What are the options?
Emotional Literacy Programme - Designed as a short-term pro-active intervention providing evidence based tools.
The sessions allow children to build on their understanding and management of emotions. Utilising crafting, activities and discussions as a way to help develop practical and healthy coping strategies that work at home and beyond. Our programme increases a child’s self-esteem, confidence, self-awareness, and overall well-being, by using a creative and therapeutic approach.
10 week cycle
Children 4-6years 30-45mins a week.
Children 7-11years 45-60mins a week.
1-1 Emotional Literacy Programme (from age 4+)
Group Emotional Literacy Programme (up to 4 children of the same KS)
Drawing & Talking Therapy - Drawing and Talking is a safe and gentle therapeutic approach. The technique is intended to allow your child to play, by drawing a picture, and process any emotions they are holding internally.
A practitioner provides a safe non-intrusive environment, letting your child work at their own pace.
1-1 Drawing & Talking (from age 5+) - 12 week cycle, 30mins a week.
Group Drawing & Talking (any age group - up to 6 children) - 6-8 week cycle, 30mins a week.
Whole Class Drawing & Talking - 6-8 week cycle, 30mins a week.
Sand Play Therapy - A therapeutic technique that is on the play continuum. This non-verbal therapeutic intervention allows your child to express their feelings and thoughts that might be difficult to communicate with words alone.
Children are presented with a sand tray and a wide range of miniature figures to create their own ‘world’. This process is guided by the child’s interactions, where a practitioner observes and supports your child without judgement.
1-1 Sand Play (from age 4+) - 12 week cycle, 30mins a week.
After School Clubs and Workshops - we can work with you to provide clubs/workshops to help meet the needs of your school and families. We have previously held workshops tackling topics such as school anxiety, anger management, sensory exploration, and more.
Like to make a referral?
Feedback from Schools
From the outset, Sophie was able to advise and plan a programme of work to meet the complex needs of our Looked After Children. The impact of her work with the children was seen after just a few sessions. We are seeing the impact of the sessions - shorter melt downs, quicker recovery times, better understanding of feelings and increased willingness to ask for help, sharing overwhelming emotions. She quickly established a working relationship with the children and has built trust, enabling them to tackle some of the issues. This programme of work is excellent value for money. I highly recommend Sophie Whelan, Bright Emotions, as an additional resource for supporting vulnerable children. - Carlton C of E Primary School
We feel that the topics have been very appropriate and progressive, the feedback each week was highly useful in showing how each skill and strategy was interleaved and developed. We feel that the work with Bright Emotions has given the pupil, Greater awareness of himself, A reduction in feelings of guilt and self blame which he was articulating before, A reduction in anger towards others, Greater ability to label and identify his own emotions and some strategies he can use to help himself, More positivity about himself and greater confidence. Communication from Bright Emotions has been fantastic – really thorough feedback and strategies shared which mean that the team could replicate and support effectively. We have really enjoyed working with Sophie and it has been a great partnership and we hope to continue this in the future. - Goldington Green Academy
We referred a small group of three Reception children plus an older Y5 child. Anxiety was a common theme for the younger children. This manifested as refusals and distress. One child in particular had very low self esteem, related to her learning needs. The older child is experiencing identity difficulties and needed support to acknowledge her thoughts and raise her self esteem. The younger children worked in an Emotional Well-being group. This was ideal for their needs, giving them the security of the other children and helping them to see that they weren’t the only children who had these worries. They loved the gentle approach and nice activities and greatly looked forward to Sophie’s visits. The older child completed a 1:1 Emotional Support Programme, using her love of art and creativity to facilitate ways to self regulate and focus on time for herself. Again, she looked forward to her time with Sophie and gradually opened up more, building her trust in Sophie. The programmes suit the needs of the children very well - I wish all children could have this time. I like in particular that Sophie works to develop a relationship with the parents too, as this is crucial to the success of the intervention. For children with the level of needs many have shown, I think it would be naive to expect a quick fix and that is not what we hoped for. We wanted the children to feel valued, safe and listened to. We wanted them to make links with other children with the same needs. They have all taken away small successes and self help strategies, and have built their relationships with others through the programme. It has met my expectations. Sophie has been extremely professional, reliable and a great asset to us. She has understood our school well and has proved that this is essential work within our schools. I’d like to see Borough put together a register of services that schools can use to access this level of support - you’d be first on the list! A big thank you, and please come back to us in September! We have plenty more children for you to help! - Wilstead Primary