evaluation Archives - Mind Moose

We are very proud to share the results of the Mind Moose transition programme evaluation, funded by Nesta.

This programme was developed and trialled with funding from the Nesta Future Ready Fund, designed to support interventions promoting social and emotional skills and resilience in young people.

Programme Overview
The transition from Year 6 to Year 7 is well-recognised as a stressful time for many children when their psychological health can suffer (Zeedyk et al.,2003).

Therefore, the Mind Moose Transition Programme is designed to support Year 6 children in their final term of primary school with their social and emotional health, focussing on preparing them for their transition to secondary school.

The programme consists of 6 lessons delivered through the Mind Moose online platform with additional full teaching materials.
Each lesson provides activities designed to build pupils’ skills in terms of resilience, self-awareness, and emotional competence, as well as teaching them effective coping skills for managing concerns, feelings, and other experiences relevant to their transition to secondary.

Impact Evaluation

Four primary schools were recruited to trial the programme with 130 pupils in the summer term of 2019.
The research project received ethical approval from the Evidence-Based Practice Unit at UCL/the Anna Freud Centre.
Pupils’ emotional health and well-being was measured and tracked (before and after completing the programme) using the student resilience survey, a valid and reliable quantitative measure.
After completing the programme pupils also completed a feedback survey, including open-ended qualitative questions to explore their views and experiences of using the Mind Moose transition programme.

The results
The data was independently analysed by psychology staff from the school of psychology at the University of Sussex and was found to show statistically significant results in the overall level of resilience and a number of sub-scales, shown to impact resilience.

The data analysis showed that taking part in the Mind Moose transition programme:

increased pupils’ overall levels of resilience as measured by the student resilience survey

Improved levels of self-esteem, goals, peer support and problem solving (sub-scales of the student resilience survey).

In addition, the pupils’ qualitative feedback was highly positive:

80% of Year 6 children said that they enjoyed using the Mind Moose programme.
82% stated that Mind Moose helped them to understand ways they could help themselves.
77% felt that Mind Moose transition helped them to understand how they could deal with problems.
72% said using the programme helped them to understand and talk about issues worrying them.

The analysis of pupils’ feedback demonstrates that most children find using Mind Moose enjoyable and feel it gives them useful advice about moving to secondary school, helping them to express their feelings and worries in a safe, private way.

“It helped me to calm myself and understand how to deal with present/future problems”.

“You can share personal worries with your teacher.”

“It’s a place for you to let all your emotions out.”

“It’s easy to use and relaxing.”

In conclusion
The evaluation provides strong evidence that using Mind Moose Transition Programme with their teacher in the last term of Year 6 can support pupils with their social and emotional health and build resilience prior to moving to secondary school in an engaging way. This is something of which we, as a social impact company, are very proud.

If you would like to find out more about our research or the Mind Moose transition programme, contact us by emailing support@mindmoose.co.uk

Reference:
Zeedyk, M. S., Gallacher, J., Henderson, M., Hope, G., Husband, B., & Lindsay, K. (2003). Negotiating the transition from primary to secondary school: Perceptions of pupils, parents and teachers. School Psychology International, 24(1), 67-79.

St Aidan’s Catholic Primary School in Knowsley started using Mind Moose 10 months ago and are already feeling the benefits. Moira Kenneway, the headteacher at St Aidan’s, made the decision to use Mind Moose having recognised the need for conversation surrounding mental wellbeing. “Our learning mentor has been using it as an intervention with some of our most vulnerable children in Years 2 to 6 to help him to find out more about each child and encourage them to share their thoughts and feelings,” she says. “We have also used it as a whole class resource in Years 1 and 5 and found huge levels of engagement and reflection from the children.”

The learning mentor at St Aidan’s, Andy Williams, has been using Mind Moose both within small groups, and on a one-to-one basis, and has found the activities to be a good way to introduce structure and direction within his sessions with pupils. He has seen the greatest impact with individual students; the activities encourage the children to write down their thoughts, which has made them feel more comfortable beginning a conversation about their feelings and what is happening in their lives.

Andy has found Mind Moose particularly useful amongst children facing adversity outside of the school environment, encouraging them to talk about any issues they are facing without appearing intrusive. ‘’Mind Moose is a great ice-breaker in terms of getting children to talk about themselves, something they are not always keen to do,” he said.

Mind Moose has helped children to develop positive coping strategies whilst discouraging negative thought and behaviour patterns. “Mind Moose has also helped children develop a positive outlook, as they can see qualities and people around them that they may not have realised,” Andy says. Some of the activities have proved especially helpful with looked after children, helping him to talk through difficult situations and giving him valuable information he can use to support the child and share with others.

Pupils have begun to acknowledge ways that they can stay calm in distressing situations, from difficult homework to challenging environments outside of the classroom. A Year 6 pupil found completing Mind Moose activities a good way to remain composed at home. “I feel calmed down by the activities. If I’m angry at my mum, now I know how to stay calm, but before I used Mind Moose, I couldn’t stay calm” she said.

The progress is clear and both pupils and teachers at St Aidan’s school are looking forward to continuing to use Mind Moose; “We are really enjoying using Mind Moose at St. Aidan’s.” says Moria, the head; “We would highly recommend Mind Moose, it is fantastic.”

Transition programme evaluation results

St. Aidan’s Catholic Primary School Case Study

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