Healthy Minds Compact First Steps
A short, play-based psychological fitness programme for Nursery children.
Across five simple sessions, children begin to notice and name feelings, practise kindness and listening, recognise strengths in themselves and others, and explore simple ways of responding when things feel difficult.
Learning is introduced through stories, talk, movement, modelling, play and shared experiences, then reinforced through everyday Nursery routines and interactions.
Children are not expected to explain psychological fitness or remember lots of new vocabulary. The emphasis is on helping them experience, notice and practise helpful skills, with adults modelling the language and noticing these skills as they naturally appear.
Lessons
Explore the curriculum
Browse lessons in order, then open any lesson for its summary, learning outcomes, and supporting resources.
HM Compact: First Steps: Kind Hands, Kind Words
Children learn that kindness is something we do.
HM Compact: First Steps: Listen With Care
Kindness is something we do.
HM Compact: First Steps: Name That Feeling
Children learn about emotions. Notice it. Name it. What or who might help?
HM Compact: First Steps: I Can Shine
Children learn about their indiviudal strengths
HM Compact: First Steps: We All Shine
Children learn to notice strengths in each other.
About the organisation
Bounce Forward
Bounce Forward is a registered charity on a mission to transform how we think about mental health, shifting the narrative from deficit and crisis to strength, prevention, and psychological fitness. They create evidence-based programmes, curricula, and training that give young people, school staff, and the adults around children the knowledge, language, and daily habits to build genuine mental resilience. From whole-staff training to five-year school curricula, everything they do is practical, grounded in science, and designed to make a lasting difference not just in the moment, but across a lifetime.