Rosie’s World

The Health Education Board for Scotland is a national agency that has pioneered excellent practical work to promote positive mental and emotional health for all pupils, through whole‐school approaches, including classroom lessons. They commissioned and produced this teachers’ pack, Rosie’s World, which they have distributed to all primary schools in Scotland, and now the rest of the world could do with getting the benefit. The pack consists of a teacher’s handbook and two separate animated stories on video, entitled “Far away” and “Gone away”, which tell two stories about a young girl, Rosie. The first is about her experience of discovering that she cannot see well and needs glasses, and focuses on her feelings as she sets off for school in her new glasses, apprehensive about her classmates’ reactions to her changed appearance. The second tells how Rosie feels when, without warning, her best friend moves away from the area and leaves the school they have attended since they were five. The sensitive and imaginative teachers’ notes provide a wealth of ideas for activities to help pupils explore a wide range of mental and emotional health issues, including valuing ourselves and others, recognising and celebrating our similarities and differences, having empathy with others, and handling emotions, including those provoked by change and loss. The notes link this activities work with some central concerns of primary schools, showing how they can lead to children becoming generally more confident to learn a wide range of subjects, and providing literacy links and story links for each lesson plan. It is a very valuable resource for teachers to help them develop work in an area which children very much need and appreciate, and on which there is not currently much available.