Back to School

We launched Flourish Online when we saw the need for our Flourish Project programme to be available online for schools and young people to access. We have now piloted it for the past 8 weeks and have seen some brilliant results:

13 schools have launched Flourish Online pilot

123 children are currently working through the programme

14 teachers have received pilot training

We would love to give you the opportunity to try it out too. There are two ways that you could do this:

1. If you have a young person between the ages of 10 and 14, then we are happy for them to have a licence.
2. You may wish for a licence yourself so that you can work through the sessions and see what is involved.

How would this work?
For a young person, sessions need to be completed at weekly intervals (over 8 weeks) and he/she needs to finish the course.

We will provide, free of charge, a license (worth £15) for each person who would like to complete Flourish Online. This will consist of a login, password, and ‘help’ manual. After 8 weeks, your login will be automatically revoked as this is a pilot.

If you are interested, please complete the form below and we will be in contact with more details and your login details.

Once you have completed the 8-week course, we would love to use your feedback to develop the programme further and promote Flourish Online on our social media platforms.
We also hope this will give you more insight to promote the programme in your schools, clubs and communities.

We all know that many children and young people’s mental wellbeing have deteriorated during the lockdown. The Guardian newspaper had an article on 29.01.21 calling it a ‘teenage mental health crisis‘. One big question is “how can I help?”

A year ago, the Flourish Project was delivered by facilitators going into schools, youth organisation and sports clubs and then – COVID-19. We took the contents of the facilitator-led course, including its video assets and activities, and have created Flourish Online. Working with a skilled IT programmer, we have worked to develop a range of interactions, videos and games, all tailored to young people aged 10-13 years. These make up the 8-week course which is accessed via a secure online portal. We’ve built into the programme assessments of the pupils’ mental wellbeing and happiness at the start and end of the course, so that progress can be measured. All of the activities included within the interactive sessions are aimed at improving mental wellbeing and self-esteem, building resilience and giving tools to young people to help them develop life-skills in these areas. Each week takes about 30-40 minutes. It’s ideal for remote learning or to be used by groups in ICT suites, and it is fun! Schools are under great pressure to provide this type of support for their pupils.

Obviously, the value of running the Flourish Project with Facilitators will not diminish, but moving to an online platform has enabled us to extend our reach to areas where we have no facilitators, given greater flexibility to schools in accessing the course and trained additional school staff in awareness of mental wellbeing. Flourish Online allows us to impact the lives of more children and young people in a shorter time period. As we emerge from lockdown, Flourish Online and the Flourish Project will work together to enhance our resource basis.

Currently we have a number of schools across the UK taking part in our pilot. Each school receives, for free: 10 licences (for 1 admin and 9 users), an hour’s mental wellbeing awareness training, a user manual and support in using the platform. In return we are looking for teachers to give us feedback and to share their positive experiences on social media. We also have two discussion guides – one suitable for all schools, the other for church maintained schools or Christian groups – which come free with the licences. These materials are for use after completion of each session and include leaders’ notes, handouts for students, practical activities, discussion questions and background information. There is no compulsion for a school or group to use the Discussion Guides but several schools have been keen to do this as they felt it would enable their pupils to get more out of the course. 

We are looking for other schools who would like to pilot Flourish Online this academic year – do you have contacts with schools or teachers who could be invited to join us? 

Are you able to help meet some of the costs of developing the online platform now and into the future? We have had to pay for this development from our reserves at present. 

Would you like to sponsor licences for one of your local schools so that more children and young people can benefit from Flourish Online?

The pandemic has impacted the project both financially as-well-as halting the impact we have on children’s & family lives. In order to continue to impact communities, the project has needed to adapt its current approach. 

We have approached a couple of Headteachers about moving the programme to a web-based package so that we will continue to see lives and school cultures impacted in a positive way. This could also help the project reach its vision of seeing 100,000 children reached in 10 years’ time more efficiently and quickly.

This web-based package will enable more children to have access to our resource, through interactive games, challenges whilst continuing to give some much-needed tools and strategies. 

This is not a time for the project to pull back as the need in regard to mental wellbeing during this pandemic is great! As of September, it could expand very quickly, however, we need to be prepared to ensure we can meet the need with the resources we have.

We have been working hard during the pandemic to secure some funding to help us build the new e-learning programme, however, we are still £7000 short in meeting our target.

We could really do with your help! We have a projected figure of seeing over 600 children access this e-learning resource this year. That is less than £12 per child to reach our target. Would you be willing to sponsor a child, a group of children, even a full class?

To donate towards our e-learning project, check out the link below. We would love to report before the end of the year that all 600 children have been given access to this resource to help them with their mental health as we continue to navigate this pandemic.