“Children will leave school with these life skills, which I think is amazing”: an interview study exploring teachers’ experiences of implementing a health and wellbeing curriculum

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since 2020, changes to the school curriculum in England and Wales have made elements of Personal, Social, and Health Education (PSHE) statutory. As schools grapple with these changes, alongside the psychosocial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic, it is important to consider effective ways of helping children make safe decisions and improve their overall mental health/wellbeing. Previous research has demonstrated the benefits of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a treatment for range of psychological and behavioral disorders. As an extension of this, the DNA-V model provides a way of teaching children and adolescents the same psychological skills targeted within the ACT model in a more developmentally informed manner. Using scripted lesson plans, the Connect PSHE curriculum offers a research-informed curriculum for 4- to 11-year-olds so teachers can introduce the DNA-V model alongside the six ways to wellbeing. In this paper, we aimed to explore teachers’ (N = 6) experiences of implementing Connect PSHE within a primary school context. Through semi-structured interviews and thematic content analysis, we identified six themes around the implementation process: (1) buy-in and engagement, (2) training and support for teachers, (3) program design, (4) creating a psychologically safe environment, (5) online delivery, (6) benefits. We outline how these findings support the existing literature around school-based ACT and reflect upon some of the feedback for future development.