Getting involved

For this feasibility study, children and their carers and teachers will be randomly selected by computer into one of two groups: the control group or the STrAWB package group. Please watch this short video, What Happens Next? which explains how this works and next steps.

In summary, for those in the control group:

  • Teachers, carers and children will be asked to complete some short forms at the beginning of the study and again 12 months later. In between, they carry on as usual.

There are benefits for those in the control group. The information gathered for each child will provide carers and teachers with valuable snapshots of each child’s mental health and well-being in home and school contexts across a 12-month period. All of our training materials will be available to you, FREE, as PDFs, at the end of the study.

In summary, for those in the STrAWB package group:

  • Carers and teachers attend an online training course designed to help early identification of signs of distress, as well as the child's strengths and assets. The training runs online over 6 sessions. You work through some in your own time, and others are online group sessions, using the video chat facilities of your computer or mobile device.
  • After training, carers, teachers and children complete some more short forms, which provide an overview of how the child is getting on. Guidance is provided in the training, including how to support the children to fill in their forms.
  • Taken together, the information is then reviewed by a mental health expert who creates an individual profile of the needs and strengths of each child.
  • Key adults in the child's life (carers, teachers, social workers) then meet to discuss and review the child's profile report.

If you’re randomly selected for the STrAWB package group:

  • You will be sent an email with information about the training dates and a booking link.
  • It is important that the carer and designated teacher of a child are in the same training sessions together. Please agree the most convenient times/dates that you can both make before booking.
  • When you have both agreed which sessions you would like to attend, please make your online booking and we will send you a confirmation email and joining instructions.
  • We use an easy, user-friendly online teaching tool called Padlet, where you will access all the teaching materials. It would be helpful to view this Padlet tutorial video in advance of attending the first session.