Each Amazing Breath

Nothing could be more important than teaching children to manage stress and anxiety. There can be no greater gift to give a child than to teach them how to build resilience and therefore avoid mental health problems through their childhood and into adulthood.

“Prevention is better than cure” – has been long stated as important in the world of physical health. We believe that it is also infinitely better to prevent mental health problems than to try and treat them. Our programmes teach children that they can manage their emotions, tap into their inner strength, deal with any trauma that they face and ‘bounce back’ from difficult situations.

Who we are

Each Amazing Breath CIC was established as a not for profit organisation in 2014 based in Nottinghamshire, UK.  One of our directors, Dr Natalie Price, is a psychologist who specialises in trauma-informed care, preventative mental health and strengths-based emotional wellness. Together we have designed ‘Take Five’ a self-sustaining and value for money programme for schools. www.eachamazingbreath.org.uk

What is the Take Five Programme?

The ‘Take Five’ programme is our foundation programme. It is a trauma informed, whole school programme for Primary, Junior and Infants schools. It has been shown to embed emotional well-being across all pupils, in all years and to grow children's personal capacity to:

• Release toxic stress
• Feel calm and ready to learn
• Cope with anger and difficult emotional states
• Feel positive about themselves
• Improve peer to peer relationships
• Cope with unexpected changes

The Impact of Take Five

The Take Five programme is tried and tested and results in positive improvements in many areas of children’s school and home lives including:

• Emotional Capacity to cope with stress
• Attendance
• Behaviour
• Readiness to Learn
• SATS results
• Self-Confidence
• Independence

Our website includes a number of Impact Reports which give greater detail on the real benefits experienced by children https://www.eachamazingbreath.org.uk/impact-reports1

The Urgent Need for ‘Take Five’ in schools now

Since the pandemic, levels of anxiety have increased, particularly in children. This has coincided with the cost of living crisis and a huge drop in funding from central and local government. Children are more anxious than ever before and attendance is at a worryingly low level.

As an example, one primary school who are very keen to enable their to children to access the Take Five programme, serves an area of high deprivation with complex needs and diversity in Sheffield. They have over 66% of children on free school meals and over 71% are pupil premium. Furthermore, school attendance is at 89%, significantly below national average and target. The headteacher told us that they "Frequently see children arriving at school dysregulated and have identified crunch times after break and lunch as well. We feel Take 5 will support us with transitions, and help children to regulate their emotions so they are then able to focus, learn and progress, thus having a positive impact."

We know that children who learn to manage their emotions from a young age can avoid mental health problems in the future. We want to teach as many children as possible, particularly those in the most deprived areas of the UK, to react to the difficulties they face and bounce back “like a tennis ball rather than a bean bag” as one of our pupils very succinctly put it.

Funding now allows schools to use the programme for years to come

To date we have helped more than 100 schools and 21,000 young people. But what is unique is our “train-the-trainer format” through which staff obtain the skills and tools to implement Take Five across their entire school by training their colleagues and pupil leaders. This means that schools can (and do) continue our programme on an ongoing basis at a minimal annual cost (less than £150pa). Therefore, an initial investment through this funding will impact not just the children at each school at the present time but the children who come through its doors for years to come.

What we will do with the funding.

We would like to take our programme to 8 new schools in the most deprived areas of the East Midlands. This would immediately reach 1600 children but the programme would benefit all of the children joining the school in the future. We have a number of schools who would hugely benefit from the “Take Five” Programme but do not have the funds.

We are offering a proactive, preventative response to the current mental health crisis. Please help us to give children the opportunity to learn resilience and manage stress and anxiety by:

1. Making a pledge.

2. Spreading the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell your friends and family about us. The more we can raise, the more children can benefit from this unique, tried and tested programme.