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Healthy Minds

Evidence-informed lessons for resilience, relationships, wellbeing, and positive mental health.

Healthy Minds is a full, evidence-based mental health and resilience curriculum designed to be delivered as a developmental learning journey across all five years of secondary school. Evidence tells us that consistent teaching and learning across time makes the biggest impact. Healthy Minds was curated from extensive research and now spans 11 carefully sequenced modules with 70 structured lessons. It gives young people the knowledge, language and skills they need to understand themselves, manage life's challenges, be ready for change and uncertainty and grow into confident, agile, emotionally intelligent adults.

Built on sound theories in cognitive behavioural, positive psychology, neuroscience, and adolescent development research, Healthy Minds takes a spiral approach introducing core concepts in Year 7 and returning to them with increasing depth as students mature. Skills genuinely accumulate over time. Students begin by learning the fundamentals of resilience that underpin the whole curriculum and are returned to across different topic areas that are appropriate for age and relevance. Learning includes how the brain works, tools to be still and mindful, regulate, choose optimism and the qualities such as empathy and hope. Topics covered are media literacy, physical resilience (nutrition, exercise and sleep), mental illness, healthy relationships, decision-making under pressure, and finally the specific challenges of exams and life beyond school.

What makes Healthy Minds distinctive is its evidence base (an RCT that followed 10,000 children over 5 years in different schools across the county) and it's commitment to transferable, practical learning. By the time a student completes the full curriculum, they will have built a coherent inner framework for understanding their own mind, supporting others and maintaining their wellbeing through the pressures of school and beyond. For schools, it offers something genuinely rare: a structured, progressive approach to mental health education that treats young people's wellbeing not as an add-on but as a core part of their development.

70
Lessons
11
Modules
5
Years

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Modules and lessons

Explore the curriculum

Browse modules in order, then open any lesson for its summary, learning outcomes, and supporting resources.

Year 76 lessons

Resilience Skills Foundation

Everyone faces setbacks. What separates those who bounce on is a set of learnable skills. This module introduces students to the science of resilience: how the brain works, why we think the way we do, and how to identify and challenge the unhelpful thought patterns that hold us back. It's the foundation everything else is built on.

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Resilience Skills Foundation
Healthy Minds

Resilience & Harnessing Positive Emotions

This is the opening lesson of the Healthy Minds Foundation module. It introduces students to the concept of resilience, the skills that help us navigate the inevitable ups and downs of life.

Year 7Lesson 17 materialsLogin
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Resilience Skills Foundation
Healthy Minds

Connecting the Brain, Emotions & Thoughts

Students explore the neuroscience behind why we react the way we do. The lesson introduces a simple three-part model of the brain (Primitive, Feeling, Thinking) and explains how emotions and thoughts are connected.

Year 7Lesson 25 materialsLogin
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Resilience Skills Foundation
Healthy Minds

Introducing Gremlin Beliefs

Building on the ABC framework from Lesson 2, this lesson introduces the concept of Gremlin Beliefs — four types of common unhelpful thinking patterns that distort how we see situations and drive negative emotions and behaviours. Students learn to identify these gremlins in scenarios and practise replacing them with more accurate, flexible thinking.

Year 7Lesson 35 materialsLogin
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Resilience Skills Foundation
Healthy Minds

Optimism & Evidence

This lesson teaches students to challenge Gremlin Beliefs by seeking evidence and thinking flexibly. Using an optical illusion, opinion-line debates, and a story (Mia and Ava at the arcade), students discover the difference between optimistic and pessimistic thinking, and learn that our brains can tell inaccurate stories when they lack evidence.

Year 7Lesson 45 materialsLogin
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Resilience Skills Foundation
Healthy Minds

WoBbLe: Taming the Catastrophising Gremlin

This lesson focuses specifically on the Catastrophising Gremlin Belief — the tendency to snowball a small problem into a catastrophic chain of disasters in our mind. Students are introduced to the WoBbLe skill (Worst case → Best case → Most Likely), a structured thinking technique to bring balance to runaway catastrophic thoughts.

Year 7Lesson 54 materialsLogin
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Resilience Skills Foundation
Healthy Minds

Resilience Planning

This is the final lesson of the Foundation module — a consolidation and celebration lesson. Students revisit all five resilience skills taught across the module through a structured review quiz, then create their own individual Resilience Plan that captures what they have learnt and how they will apply it in their lives.

Year 7Lesson 64 materialsLogin
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Year 74 lessons

Intentional Stillness

In a world that never stops, the ability to pause is a superpower. Students learn how deliberate stillness whether through breath, movement, or connection can reduce anxiety, improve sleep and reset an overwhelmed mind. This lesson is science-backed and immediately useful.

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Intentional Stillness
Healthy Minds

Introduction to Intentional Stillness

This is the introductory lesson of the Intentional Stillness module. It establishes what "intentional stillness" means — paying deliberate, purposeful attention to the present moment — and introduces the three types of intentional stillness practice: Bodily, Connection, and Cognitive.

Year 7Lesson 13 materialsPreview
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Intentional Stillness
Healthy Minds

Intentional Stillness & Anxiety

This lesson explores the link between intentional stillness and managing anxiety. Students learn about the brain's anxiety response (the amygdala), use the metaphor of a stress/anxiety bucket to understand what fills and empties their personal anxiety, and practise three forms of intentional stillness.

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Intentional Stillness
Healthy Minds

Intentional Stillness & Sleep

This lesson explores the specific link between intentional stillness and sleep quality. Students learn why sleep is especially important for teenagers, discuss recommended sleep hours and the consequences of sleep deprivation, and practise intentional stillness techniques designed to prepare the mind and body for rest.

Year 7Lesson 33 materialsLogin
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Intentional Stillness
Healthy Minds

Connecting to Others

The final lesson of the Intentional Stillness module explores the deep link between human connection and mental health. Students learn about the social brain (specifically the insula) and how our connections with others influence our feelings and behaviours.

Year 7Lesson 45 materialsLogin
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Year 76 lessons

Media Nav

Social media isn't going anywhere but young people rarely get taught how to read it critically. This module builds genuine media literacy, helping students decode advertising, separate fantasy from reality and begin thinking carefully about the identity they want to project online.

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Media Nav
Healthy Minds

Introduction to Media Literacy & Social Media

This is the first lesson of the Social Media Investigated: Media Navigator module — a media literacy programme for Year 7. The lesson establishes a Safe Learning Agreement, introduces the concept of media literacy (access, analyse, create), and gives students practical experience deconstructing an advertisement (Kia Exercising Hamsters) to identify text, subtext, and target audience.

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Media Nav
Healthy Minds

Fantasy & Reality

This lesson explores how media blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Students deconstruct a Lego advertisement for fantasy elements, analyse the McDonald's Big Mac Makeover video to understand how food advertising manipulates reality, examine the nature of reality television using The Biggest Loser as a case study, and begin exploring what it means to set boundaries online.

Year 7Lesson 29 materialsLogin
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Media Nav
Healthy Minds

Advantages, Disadvantages & Boundary Setting

This lesson builds on the boundary-setting discussion from Lesson 2 and extends it into a structured exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of social media. Students collaborate to generate their own advantages/disadvantages list, discuss whether social media turns people into performers, and work in small groups on a Social Media Scenarios activity — arranging scenario cards from most positive to most negative and discussing what boundaries would keep people safe.

Year 7Lesson 36 materialsLogin
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Media Nav
Healthy Minds

Benefits of Social Media

This lesson takes a deliberately positive starting point: research shows that beginning with benefits rather than drawbacks opens minds more creatively and leads to more lasting learning. Students explore how social media enhances communication, watch and analyse two videos ("I Forgot My Phone" and "Taking Control of the Trolls"), and work in small groups to create their own personal guidelines for using social media positively.

Year 7Lesson 48 materialsLogin
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Media Nav
Healthy Minds

Creating Identity Maps

This lesson and the following one form a two-part project focused on students reflecting on the online identity they want for themselves. The aim is not to have students carve out their online identity now, but to go through a thoughtful process of considering it alongside their peers.

Year 7Lesson 57 materialsLogin
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Media Nav
Healthy Minds

Presenting Identity Maps

This is the final lesson of the Media Navigator module and of the full Healthy Minds Year 7 programme. The classroom is transformed into a social media platform: students display their identity maps on the walls or tables, rotate around the room to view each other's maps and leave written comments (non-anonymously), then return to read comments on their own map.

Year 7Lesson 66 materialsLogin
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Year 86 lessons

Resilience Revisted

The skills from Year 7 are back but this time, the stakes are higher. Students revisit optimistic thinking, WoBbLe, and the ABC model with more depth and complexity, adding assertive communication and empathy to their toolkit. Resilience isn't a one-off lesson and here we're revisiting it and exploring it further.

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Resilience Revisted
Healthy Minds

Revisit the Skills of Resilience

Recap of the five resilience skills (Harnessing Emotions, Noticing Gremlins, Reframing, Moving On, WoBbLe) with a focus on when and how to apply them in real-life situations.

Year 8Lesson 14 materialsLogin
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Resilience Revisted
Healthy Minds

Optimistic Thinking

Explores pessimistic thinking patterns and how to replace them with flexible, realistic alternatives using the ABC model and Optimistic Alternatives Worksheet.

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Resilience Revisted
Healthy Minds

WoBbLe Review

Reinforces the WoBbLe skill (Worst/Best/Most Likely case) to tame Catastrophising Gremlin Beliefs. Covers when WoBbLe is appropriate and introduces emergency response skills (999, recovery position).

Year 8Lesson 36 materialsLogin
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Resilience Revisted
Healthy Minds

Assertive Communication

Introduces the four communication styles and a four-step Assertive Communication Technique. Students practise in pairs using real-life activating event scenarios.

Year 8Lesson 44 materialsLogin
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Resilience Revisted
Healthy Minds

Moving On Skill

Introduces Confirmation Bias and how brains filter information to confirm existing beliefs. Students practise selecting the right resilience skill for different everyday situations.

Year 8Lesson 57 materialsLogin
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Resilience Revisted
Healthy Minds

Empathy and Resilience Planning

Final lesson focusing on empathy vs sympathy, resilience mind-mapping, and consolidating all five resilience skills. Students create personal resilience plans.

Year 8Lesson 65 materialsLogin
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Year 89 lessons

School to life

Who do you want to be and what will it actually take to get there? This module helps students connect their present choices to their future selves, building personal timelines, exploring role models, setting real actions and developing the problem-solving mindset that turns ambition into reality.

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School to life
Healthy Minds

Being Part of a Group and My Adult Self

Opening lesson building class rapport through group tasks. Students select images representing the adult they want to be across four life domains: work, family, lifestyle, and community.

Year 8Lesson 110 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Positive and Negative Role Models

Students identify positive and negative role models across the four adult domains and explore how these influences shape future success. Introduces the Future Me worksheet.

Year 8Lesson 26 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Bucket List and Timelines

Students create personal wishlist bucket lists then begin personal future timelines, identifying forks in the road, obstacles, and roadblocks between present day and adult goals.

Year 8Lesson 36 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Timelines Continued

Students complete and share personal timelines in small groups. Discussion draws out themes around planning, getting information, and breaking future goals into manageable steps.

Year 8Lesson 46 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Actions

Distinguishes dreams from possible selves and introduces specific action-setting. Students write clear, time-bound actions for each adult life domain linked to their timeline goals.

Year 8Lesson 56 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Possible Selves

Students create poster boards visualising their next-year positive and negative possible selves, then select strategies and actions to reach positive outcomes and avoid negative ones.

Year 8Lesson 66 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Adult Possible Selves

Extends possible selves thinking to the long-term adult future. Students complete the adult side of their poster board, connecting present actions to adult aspirations.

Year 8Lesson 76 materialsLogin
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Solving Everyday Problems

Introduces structured problem-solving for everyday school-related challenges. Students apply resilience skills to real problems, recognising that seeking help promptly is a strength.

Year 8Lesson 8Login
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School to life
Healthy Minds

Looking Forward

Final From School to Life lesson connecting present choices to future goals. Students reflect on how resilience skills, role models, timelines, and actions work together to support their futures.

Year 8Lesson 96 materialsLogin
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Year 88 lessons

Media Influences

From gender stereotypes to food marketing to the psychology of gambling, media shapes how young people see themselves and make decisions often without them realising it. This module pulls back the curtain, giving students the critical tools to question what they consume and the confidence to push back.

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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Introduction to Media Influences

Introductory lesson revisiting media literacy and setting context for Media Influences. Covers advances in social media, text vs subtext, and prepares students for critical analysis of gender, body image, health, and decision-making.

Year 8Lesson 1Login
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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Media Gender Constructions

Examines how media constructs gender stereotypes. Students deconstruct adverts to identify target marketing, gender bias, and the influence of legislation on media representation.

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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Media and Body Image

Explores how media promotes unrealistic body ideals. Deconstructs fashion and fitness advertising, addresses body shaming, and develops body-positive, health-focused responses.

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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Media, Health and Food Marketing

Compares food product marketing against actual nutritional value. Students examine food targeting strategies, barriers to accessing healthy food, and structural issues in public health.

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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Media, Health, and the Marketing of Addiction

Investigates gambling product marketing and the links between gaming mechanics and addiction. Features a team quiz and scenario-based group discussion on gambling awareness.

Year 8Lesson 5Login
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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Media and Decision Making

Examines how media directly influences consumer and personal decision-making. Students analyse persuasion techniques, build a media log, and develop strategies for more conscious decision-making.

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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Creating Media

Students design and create their own counter-adverts challenging a deceptive or harmful media message. Covers counter advertising concepts, deconstruction examples, and practical campaign production.

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Media Influences
Healthy Minds

Presenting Media: My Counter Advert

Final lesson where students present their counter-adverts to the class. Discussion reflects on the full Media Influences module and how critical media literacy applies beyond school.

Year 8Lesson 8Login
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Year 95 lessons

Physical Resilience

Mental health doesn't live only in the mind. This module explores the powerful, evidence-based connections between exercise, nutrition, sleep and psychological wellbeing. This lesson aims to give students a clear understanding of how looking after their body directly shapes how they think, feel and cope.

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Physical Resilience
Healthy Minds

Exercise and Mental Health

This opening lesson of the Physical Resilience module developed with the Harry Kane Foundation. The resource explores the direct link between physical exercise and mental health. Students revisit the resilience skills from Year 7 (positive emotion, ABC, Gremlin Beliefs) and apply them specifically to their beliefs about physical activity. The lesson uses Harry Kane as a relatable ambassador and challenges students to identify and reframe unhelpful thinking patterns about exercise.

Year 9Lesson 15 materialsLogin
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Physical Resilience
Healthy Minds

Nutrition and Mental Health

This lesson explores the growing evidence base for the link between what we eat and our mental health. Students learn about the gut-brain axis, the role of different food groups, and the barriers that prevent young people from eating well. Using Harry Kane as a relatable case study, they examine how nutrition choices directly impact physical and mental performance, then create a collaborative Mental Strength Nutrition Charter.

Year 9Lesson 25 materialsLogin
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Physical Resilience
Healthy Minds

Sleep and the Adolescent Brain

This lesson explores why sleep is essential for adolescent mental and physical health. Students learn about the science of sleep — including the circadian rhythm, melatonin, Non-REM and REM sleep stages — and hear from both Harry Kane and Dr John Coleman (clinical psychologist and adolescence expert) on why sleep matters. The lesson culminates in students reflecting honestly on their own sleep routines and beginning a sleep diary.

Year 9Lesson 35 materialsLogin
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Physical Resilience
Healthy Minds

Facts and Common Beliefs About Sleep

Building directly on Lesson 3, this lesson goes deeper into the science of teen sleep, the real impact of sleep deprivation, and — crucially — the common unhelpful beliefs that prevent young people from prioritising sleep. Students watch a second Dr John Coleman video, generate a class list of sleep myths, then use the reframing technique (linking back to Gremlin Beliefs and flexible thinking from Year 7) to challenge and replace those beliefs with more accurate alternatives.

Year 9Lesson 45 materialsLogin
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Physical Resilience
Healthy Minds

Sleep Routines

The final lesson of the Physical Resilience module moves from understanding sleep science to taking practical action. Students watch Dr John Coleman's third video on sleep routines and how to overcome the melatonin effect, build a class list of healthy sleep routines, and create their own personalised sleep diary. The session closes with a final word from Harry Kane and a signpost to the National Sleep Helpline.

Year 9Lesson 56 materialsLogin
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Year 97 lessons

Mental Illness

One in four people will experience a mental health condition. This module destigmatises that reality exploring the science behind mental illness, the most common conditions affecting young people, how to spot warning signs in others and how to have the conversations that matter. Honest, compassionate and genuinely equipping.

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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

Defining Mental Health

The opening lesson of the Mental Illness Investigated series sets the foundation for a sensitive and rigorous seven-lesson exploration of mental health and mental illness. Students establish where to get support, build their initial understanding of what mental health means, draw parallels with physical health, and explore the idea that mental health exists on a spectrum that everyone moves along throughout their lives.

Year 9Lesson 1Login
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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

The Science of Mental Illness

This lesson explores the biological and neurological basis of mental illness. Using a multi-section video ("Understanding the Biology of Mental Illness"), students learn about neurons, brain function, and how disruptions in brain networks and neurochemical messengers underpin mental ill health. PET scan evidence is introduced to show that mental illness produces observable physical changes in the brain — directly challenging the idea that it is "all in the mind".

Year 9Lesson 2Login
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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

Understanding Mental Illness

This lesson moves from brain science to the lived experience of mental illness. Students explore the four most prevalent mental health conditions affecting young people — anxiety, depression, self-harm, and eating disorders — through a structured group research and presentation activity. Each group develops a character's diary entry to explore the real day-to-day impact of their assigned condition, then presents their findings to the class.

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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

Triggers, Protective Factors & Promoting Wellbeing

This lesson focuses on why mental illness develops — the triggers and risk factors — and, equally importantly, the protective factors and intentional actions that promote wellbeing. Students sort mental health fact-or-fiction cards, explore the Five Ways to Wellbeing, and challenge common myths and misconceptions. The lesson reinforces that looking after mental wellbeing is as intentional and important as looking after physical health.

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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

Mental Illness — Spotting & Supporting

This lesson equips students with the practical skills to recognise early warning signs of mental illness in others, initiate supportive conversations, and signpost to appropriate help. Through the Mental Health Support MindMap, a Recognise the Warning Signs worksheet, the What Next worksheet, and real quotes from young people on how to talk to a friend, students build both the knowledge and the confidence to respond when someone they care about may be struggling.

Year 9Lesson 5Login
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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

Healthy Coping Strategies

This lesson explores the range of ways people respond to difficult situations, thoughts, and feelings — distinguishing healthy from unhealthy coping mechanisms. Through the Healthy Coping Toolbox activity, paired case studies featuring three young people (Andi, Goldin, and Zane), and a personalised "Ideas to Try" worksheet, students build a practical toolkit of strategies to manage their own mental health and support others. The lesson reinforces that coping strategies are personal and that what works for one person may not work for another.

Year 9Lesson 6Login
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Mental Illness
Healthy Minds

Reducing Mental Health Stigma

The final lesson of the Mental Illness Investigated series addresses one of the most significant barriers to young people seeking help: stigma. Using an "alien" thought experiment to define stigma, two short videos (one humorous, one featuring young people sharing real experiences), and group work drawing on the See Me campaign's ideas for challenging stigma, students create a Class Charter of five commitments to reduce mental health stigma in their school community. The lesson closes with a Looking Back & Forwards reflection on the full seven-lesson series.

Year 9Lesson 7Login
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Year 97 lessons

Resilient Relationships

Relationships are one of the biggest influences on wellbeing and one of the least taught skills in school. Students explore what makes relationships healthy, how to set and communicate boundaries and how the deep beliefs we hold about the world shape the way we connect with others. Challenging, honest and transformative.

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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

Resilient Relationships - Introduction

The opening lesson of the Resilient Relationships series reconnects students with the core Resilience Skills from earlier modules and applies them to relationships for the first time. Students revisit the ABC model (Activating event–Beliefs–Consequences) in the context of relationships, explore the full spectrum of relationship types, distinguish healthy from unhealthy relationships, examine the beliefs that help and hinder them, and build their understanding of healthy relationship foundations through a relationship triangle model. The lesson also covers the role of sex in relationships and the importance of building strong foundations before deepening connection.

Year 9Lesson 1Login
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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

Healthy Boundaries

This lesson explores what healthy relationship boundaries are, why they matter, and how to set and communicate them assertively. Using the "Smart Love" framework, relationship scenarios, and the assertive communication technique revisited from Year 8, students practise boundary-setting conversations — including how to end a romantic relationship. The lesson also addresses toxic and abusive relationships, warning signs to watch for, and where to seek help if someone feels unsafe.

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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

Relationship Characteristics and Parental Responsibility

This lesson broadens the focus from romantic relationships to the responsibilities that come with parenthood, and deepens students' understanding of consent. A structured debate on common consent myths opens the lesson before students complete a relationship-type quiz. The lesson then shifts to parental responsibility — legal, emotional, and financial — culminating in a group activity where students consider everything that needs to be in place before bringing a child into the world.

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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

Big Sticky Beliefs and Relationships

This lesson introduces Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) — the deep, often invisible assumptions people hold about how the world should be — and explores how they differ from the situation-specific Gremlin Beliefs studied in earlier modules. Through the ABC model, case studies (Hannah, Jenny, and the recurring character Dennis), and reflective pair work, students learn to recognise when an overreaction in a relationship is being driven by an underlying BSB, and begin exploring their own world-view beliefs.

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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

Identifying Big Sticky Beliefs

Building on the introduction to Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) from Lesson 4, this lesson equips students with a practical technique - "what" questions, for identifying BSBs in themselves and others. Students begin with a relaxing music exercise, then explore their own world-view through anonymous sentence completions. Using the Bodhi case study and a set of "what" question prompts, pairs practise drawing out BSBs, before the lesson closes with personal reflection on times they have overreacted and what underlying BSBs might have driven those reactions.

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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

BSBs and Human Connections

This lesson deepens students' understanding of Big Sticky Beliefs (BSBs) by showing how they drive out-of-proportion reactions in real relationship situations, and then teaches students how to modify or challenge unhelpful BSBs. Through a Take 5 breathing exercise, short drama performances based on three relationship Activating Events, and guided evidence-checking using Lucas as a worked example, students practise noticing when a BSB is "in play" and reworking their ABC to reach a more helpful response.

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Resilient Relationships
Healthy Minds

BSBs and Planning for the Future

The final lesson of the Resilient Relationships series brings together everything students have learned about Big Sticky Beliefs and resilience skills, and projects them forward into the future. Using the Lucas example as a bridge from the previous lesson, students consider how the BSBs they hold now could shape their lives in ten years' time, create a personal Resilience Plan, and reflect on the lasting benefits of the resilience skills for their relationships and wellbeing.

Year 9Lesson 7Login
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Year 105 lessons

Resilient Decisions

Every day is full of choices and many of the most important ones come with pressure attached. This module equips students to navigate ambiguity, assess risk, resist peer influence and make decisions they can stand behind in friendships, relationships and beyond.

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Resilient Decisions
Healthy Minds

Ambiguity, Complexity and Independent Thinking

The opening lesson of the Resilient Decisions series introduces students to decision-making in the context of ambiguity — situations where there is no clearly "right" answer. Through a drawing activity with a surprise marking scheme, personal dilemmas in pairs, and group dilemma discussions, students experience first-hand the discomfort of uncertainty and begin exploring how resilience skills can help them navigate it. The lesson closes with a breathing exercise using Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" to illustrate that all choices carry uncertainty.

Year 10Lesson 14 materialsPreview
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Resilient Decisions
Healthy Minds

Assessing Risk and Opportunity

This lesson applies the ABC model directly to risk and opportunity scenarios, showing how Gremlin Beliefs can lead to poor decisions in both directions — giving in to peer pressure on risk, or backing away from genuine opportunity. Students learn the "Hot Seat" technique for disputing Gremlin Beliefs in the moment, and explore how peer influence — positive and negative — shapes real-life decision-making.

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Resilient Decisions
Healthy Minds

Assertive Communication and Decision Making

This lesson returns to the assertive communication technique and extends it into the context of decision-making and negotiation. A morally complex friendship dilemma is explored through "Conscience Alley" — a physical drama activity where the class line up as pros and cons while one student walks between them as the protagonist. Students then practise assertive communication, negotiation, and empathy in small-group role plays, learning to communicate difficult decisions effectively even when others disagree.

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Resilient Decisions
Healthy Minds

Decision Making in Romantic Relationships

This lesson applies the resilience skills to decisions specifically within romantic relationships, including sex and relationship safety. A Yes/No/Not Sure team debate on nine morally complex statements opens the conversation, before the ABC model is used to show how Beliefs drive decisions in potentially unsafe relationship situations. Students explore the beliefs that might lead someone toward or away from having sex, and the lesson closes with clear information on the forms of relationship abuse and where to seek help.

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Resilient Decisions
Healthy Minds

Reviewing How We Make Decisions

The final lesson of the Resilient Decisions series consolidates everything students have learned through a creative group challenge: designing and pitching a "Decision Making App" for teenagers. This playful, competitive activity requires each group to draw on the full range of resilience skills covered across the series and articulate them in a two-minute pitch to the class. The lesson closes by summarising the five core benefits of resilience for decision-making.

Year 10Lesson 54 materialsLogin
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Year 117 lessons

Resilient Learner

The final module brings everything full circle. As students face the pressure of exams and life beyond school, they learn how to manage anxiety, adopt a growth mindset, identify their personal strengths and build an action plan for performing at their best when it matters most.

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Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Barriers to Success

The opening lesson of the Resilient Learner series applies the resilience skills to the experience of studying and exams. Students map their personal learning journey on a timeline, identifying highs and lows, what enables them to perform at their best, and the beliefs that helped or hindered them. The ABC model is briefly revisited through a relatable exam scenario to reconnect students with the link between thinking, feeling, and behaviour in an academic context.

Year 11Lesson 1Preview
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Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Learning Priority and Strategies

This lesson helps students identify their personal strengths and weaknesses across four key learning capabilities, then learn from each other through a structured peer-teaching carousel. By self-assessing their confidence in Perseverance, Getting Going, Keeping It in Perspective, and Moving Forward, students group themselves by their strongest capability and take turns both teaching and learning from their peers, exploring the Beliefs that underpin each capability.

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Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Learning Mindsets

This lesson introduces Carol Dweck's fixed versus growth mindset theory and frames it within the resilience skills language students already know (mindsets as clusters of Big Sticky Beliefs). Students explore their beliefs about intelligence through an Agree/Disagree scale, a mindset grid activity, paired role-playing of fixed and growth mindset responses, a short video about brain plasticity, and a group evidence-gathering exercise — building a compelling case for why a growth mindset is more helpful for learning.

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Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Dealing with Anxiety

This lesson focuses specifically on how anxiety interferes with learning and exam performance, and reinforces two key tools for managing it: calming and focusing techniques (harnessing emotions) and WoBbLe (taming catastrophising Gremlin Beliefs). Through an ABC worked example where the Consequence is given first, students identify what Activating Events and Beliefs might be driving exam-related anxiety, then practise WoBbLe on three real exam-pressure scenarios.

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Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Action Planning

This lesson brings together all four Learning Action Plans completed across the series and consolidates the skills into a personal forward-planning document. Students first practise using the skills "in the moment" through the Hot Seat activity with an exam-day social stressor scenario, then write a detailed personal plan covering Gremlin Beliefs, learning capabilities, strategies, support networks, and self-reward. The lesson closes with a Q&A opportunity and a summary of the five core benefits of resilience for learning.

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Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Emotions, Energy and Performance

This lesson introduces the Emotions, Energy and Performance model from sports psychology — a four-quadrant grid (positive/negative emotion × high/low energy) that maps emotional states to performance zones: Thriving, Survival, Burnout, and Recovery. Students explore where their emotions currently sit, what beliefs keep them from prioritising recovery, and what practical actions they can take to achieve the right personal ratio of high performance and effective recovery — particularly in the lead-up to exams. The Five Ways to Wellbeing are revisited as a source of recovery ideas.

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Bounce Forward
Resilient Learner
Healthy Minds

Strengths

The final lesson of the Resilient Learner series — and of the complete Healthy Minds curriculum — draws on the work of the VIA Institute on Character to help students identify and articulate their personal strengths. Through a focused listening exercise, a strengths card exploration, a small-group presentation, and a discussion connecting strengths to the Energy and Performance grid, students leave with a clearer sense of who they are at their best and how to use their strengths intentionally going forward. The lesson closes by encouraging students to use their strengths to write a personal statement for life beyond Year 11.

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Bounce Forward

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Bounce Forward

Bounce Forward provides evidenced, practical educational resources that help young people build mental resilience, emotional wellbeing, and a growth mindset.

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