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Ready-to-play Key Stage 1 emotional health lesson series
The Togetherness six-lesson KS1 emotional health programme is freely available for teachers through Developing Experts.
Meets national curriculum requirements
Mental health awareness
Click and play
The ready-to-play lesson series helps you to deliver your mental health education requirements in a simple, accessible and inspiring way.
Sign up for free to gain access to the comprehensive digital lesson pack. All of the six lessons include interactive video-based presentations with supplementary classroom based activities to help bring ideas to life.
The programme brings together the evidence-based ideas from psychology and psychotherapy in Togetherness with the creative lesson design expertise of Developing Experts. Each lesson supports classroom conversations about emotions, trusted adults, self-care and wellbeing, while giving teachers clear guidance, scripts and ready-to-deliver resources.
About the programme
The Togetherness mental health lesson series is designed to run over six lessons and can be delivered by teachers through Developing Experts’ digital learning platform. Each lesson is ready-to-use – just click to play – with structured activities and guidance to help you introduce emotional health in a way that is age-appropriate, relational and safe.
Benefits for teachers
- Ready-to-deliver lessons that reduce planning time.
- Clear scripts and guidance to support sensitive classroom conversations.
- Language you can use every day to help children talk about emotions.
- Support for healthy emotional modelling, so adults can show that everyone has feelings and all feelings can be understood.
- A practical way to strengthen your school’s wider emotional health and wellbeing offer.
What will children learn
- How to recognise a range of emotions, including happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness and anxiety.
- How to measure feelings using a simple scale and think about whether a feeling or behaviour is proportionate.
- That some worry can be helpful, but big feelings should be shared with a trusted adult.
- How to use the phrase, “Can you help me with this big feeling?”
- Simple strategies for managing big emotions with the support of adults.
- How sleep, movement, time outdoors and healthy food support both physical and emotional wellbeing.
Your role as a trusted adult
Throughout the unit, teachers and other adults are encouraged to model their own feelings in simple, appropriate ways. This helps children see that everyone experiences emotions and that feelings deserve to be understood and talked about rather than ignored.
Strong relationships with trusted adults are central to helping children recognise, express and manage their emotions. The programme provides scripts and guidance to support healthy emotional modelling, so teachers can respond consistently and confidently when children talk about big feelings.
You may feel you need support for yourself. Check out the Togetherness online courses for teachers and school support staff.
Curriculum alignment
The lesson series supports statutory Health Education and wider RSHE expectations for primary schools. It helps pupils develop the knowledge, vocabulary and confidence to notice emotions, talk about how they feel, understand when feelings may need support and know where to seek help in school.
- Recognising the range and scale of emotions children may experience in different situations.
- Understanding that worrying and feeling down are normal experiences and are not, in themselves, signs of a mental health condition.
- Using varied vocabulary to talk about their own and others’ feelings.
- Judging whether what they are feeling and how they are behaving is appropriate and proportionate.
- Knowing where and how to seek support, including who in school they can speak to if they are worried about mental wellbeing or managing emotions.
- Understanding the benefits of physical activity, time outdoors, rest, healthy food, friendships, hobbies and community participation for health, wellbeing and happiness.
- Recognising the importance of promoting general wellbeing and physical health.
How to access the free lessons
Visit the Developing Experts website.
Register for free or log in using your school account.
Search for the Togetherness emotional health unit.
Add the six lessons to your Year 1 or Year 2 planning sequence.
Deliver the weekly lessons and welcome conversations about mental health across your school community.
Strengthen your whole-school approach
To get the most from the lesson series, schools may also look to support staff through Togetherness emotional health training. You may also involve parents and carers through the Togetherness online parent learning offer. When children see adults recognising and managing their own emotions, they learn that feelings are shared, manageable experiences they do not have to navigate alone. They also find healthy relationships to process and understand their own uncomfortable feelings.