The last two years have taken a huge toll on children’s mental health and wellbeing.
It was estimated in 2017 that one in eight young people had a diagnosable mental health condition – yet five years later this figure is thought to be closer to one in six (NHS, 2021).
A recent survey carried out by children’s mental health charity Place2Be and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) reported an increase in emotional and mental health issues among pupils during the pandemic, with school leaders, teachers and support staff in primary and secondary schools seeing a rise in children’s low self-esteem, depression and sustained feelings of anger (2022).
As the country emerges from the pandemic schools are doing their utmost to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Some are choosing to use Melva, an innovative programme that helps seven to 11-year-olds to talk openly about – and better understand – their mental health, emotions and wellbeing.
Developed by Mortal Fools, an award-winning theatre, drama and creative learning charity based in Northumberland that specialises in working with children and young people, Melva consists of two elements – a feature film and an online game.
Introducing Melva Mapletree
The film introduces children to the colourful character of Melva Mapletree, “a sweet-eating, eye-rolling, aspiring-mountain-climbing, nearly 11-year-old”.
Melva’s struggles with anxiety, trauma and bereavement – or “worrits” as she calls them – mean that she often finds it hard to set foot out of the front door, let alone do exciting new things.
Melva, played in the film by actress Katie Powell, is catapulted into an exciting adventure when her grandfather, Grandpa Pebble, pretends to go missing, forcing her to leave the house and climb Mount Scratchicle to find him. Viewers are with her every step of the way as she faces a host of challenges and discovers what true bravery really is.
As children follow Melva’s journey and the characters she meets on her travels they are encouraged to talk openly, explore and learn about mental wellbeing in an accessible, non-exposing and practical way. One of the key questions they learn to ask is: “What would Melva do?”
“Melva connects with the realities of children’s lives,” explained Kiz Crosbie, artistic director of Mortal Fools. “Whether they are battling with something they don’t understand or they feel isolated and alone, the programme helps them to realise that there are ways to work through their worries as individuals and through the relationships they hold.”
The interactive game and related activities
Meanwhile, the interactive online game, Melva Mapletree and the Quest for Barnabas Boggle, teaches children about the importance of making the right choices in life, with an emphasis on supporting others while still looking after themselves.
Alongside the film and game, which can be bought separately or as a package, there are practical activities designed to develop and embed the learning, discussion prompts, lesson plans and other teaching resources. Mortal Fools is also planning a teacher CPD programme in due course.
Melva was originally designed in response to the 2017 government Green Paper Transforming children and young people’s mental health provision. It started life as a live theatre show about Melva Mapletree and her struggles with day-to-day anxieties.
Written by playwright Danielle Burn, it was first performed as an alternative Christmas show in a pop-up theatre space in Prudhoe, Northumberland. It proved such a hit that Mortal Fools, in partnership with the charity Children North East, took it out to schools in 2019. A total of 2,800 children, mostly in the North East, saw the live show and took part in workshops afterwards.
When the pandemic struck Mortal Fools decided to turn the show into a digital offering, enabling Melva to reach a far bigger audience.
“We realised that touring a theatre show wasn’t environmentally friendly, was very resource-intensive and there was only so far we could go with it; we want to reach more than 100,000 children,” said Rachel Horton, communications and business development manager at Mortal Fools.
The digital schools package
The Melva digital schools’ package launched in 2021 and schools are now delivering it to key stage 2 children. Some schools use the programme as part of a wellbeing week while others slot it into the weekly timetable or use it to support a specific intervention group.
Mortal Fools, which hopes to tour the live show again in 2023, has also had enquiries from schools as far afield as New York and Barcelona. Part of the programme’s strength is that it gives children the language to talk about mental health, making it easier to facilitate “open, honest and regular” conversations.
For example, instead of using words like fear, worry or anxiety, children use the word “worrits”, just like Melva. Worrits are described as “squirmy creatures that live inside every human’s tummy” and while good worrits can keep you safe from danger, bad worrits can make you worry about things that might never happen or that you have no control over at all.
Talking about worrits in this way helps children to analyse their worries critically and, in the process, they start to understand the link between their thoughts and their physical responses.
The themes explored in Melva relate directly to the aims of the statutory relationships and health education curriculum. Examples include supporting children to recognise and articulate how they are feeling, helping them to understand that mental wellbeing is a normal part of daily life, identifying where and how to seek support, recognising the characteristics of caring friendships, and understanding that other children’s families sometimes look different from their own.
Rachel continued: “The feedback we’re getting from schools is that it’s such a different way of coming at mental health. The film and activities take children on a really clear journey and help them to appreciate the importance of understanding themselves and looking after themselves.
“Teachers can see that the programme has a lasting impact. The longer-term legacy is around children using the characters as a safe way to talk about how they feel. They learn what it’s like to be a well, looked-after human but they also understand that sometimes they will feel anxious and that’s a completely normal feeling.
“Teachers also say that when it comes to children who have challenging home lives Melva is a great vehicle to extract what’s going on at home.”
Feedback from schools
Mortal Fools has gathered a plethora of feedback from schools that have engaged with the programme.
“I learned that being afraid of something doesn’t mean you can’t do it,” said one child, while a teacher commented: “One girl in my class has anxiety issues and I’ve had numerous conversations with her about the way her brain has a ‘niggling voice’. She loves talking about it in those terms and it helps her to verbalise how she is thinking.”
Before the start of the pandemic, children at Hareside Primary School in Cramlington, Northumberland, watched a live performance of Melva and headteacher Jacqueline Mowat believes they benefited hugely from its approach.
“Articulating and recognising in your head that something isn’t quite right and that you are worried or anxious, and then verbalising it to someone else is a massive step, not just for adults but for children as well,” she explained.
“A lot of the time it’s about finding the language to do it. What Melva did for us in school was give mental health a voice. It touched children in ways that we had never seen before.
“As educationalists we can see children who are stressing – it’s obvious in different, subtle ways – but what surprised us was the number of children we hadn’t spotted who started to find a way of articulating what they genuinely felt and were worried about. It was really powerful.”
- Emma Lee-Potter is a freelance education writer.
Further information & resources
Mortal Fools is an award-winning theatre, drama and creative learning charity. It works with thousands of young people every year, tours its work nationally and delivers bespoke training courses across the country. Visit https://melva.org.uk/ and www.mortalfools.org.uk
References
- NHS: Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2021: Wave 2 follow up to the 2017 survey, September 2021: https://bit.ly/3owAmpA
- Place2Be: School staff witness an increase in pupil anxiety, low self-esteem and depression, February 2022: https://bit.ly/3srSVLT
Headteacher Update Knowledge Bank
This article has been published by Headteacher Update with sponsorship from Mortal Fools. It has been written and produced to a brief agreed in advance with Mortal Fools.