Foundations for Wellbeing: a mental health curriculum for primary schools

Our groundbreaking curriculum gives primary pupils lifelong strategies to understand and manage their emotions, attention and behaviour.

Free classroom posters on the neuroscience and self-regulation strategies from our Foundations for Wellbeing curriculum.

Free classroom posters
35 fully-resourced lessons, practical strategies, and statutory RSHE coverage. Available to School, Group or School Plus members.

Download all curriculum materials
Free animated videos showing slow breathing and muscle relaxation techniques to use with your pupils in the classroom.

Animated guides for pupils

See our secondary mental health curriculum

Safe, supported and structured mental health education.

Created in partnership with researchers at the University of York, Foundations for Wellbeing is an innovative PSHE curriculum for 4–11 year olds that helps pupils learn to manage their emotions, attention and behaviour — with lifelong benefits for their wellbeing.

35 fully-resourced lessons – 5 per year group from EYFS to Year 6 – that you can plan seamlessly into your wider PSHE/RSHE curriculum (see lesson summary).
Classroom-ready PowerPoints and pupil-facing materials, including videos and posters.
Sequenced progression to develop emotional literacy and regulation over time.
Evidence-based self-regulation strategies that benefit behaviour, learning and wellbeing.
Alignment with 2026 DfE statutory RSHE requirements for teaching about mental wellbeing.
Exclusively available to School and School Plus members, with access to additional, on-demand CPD training available to School Plus members only.

We also have a secondary mental health and wellbeing curriculum available for members: Wellbeing for Life.

About the curriculum

	Free account	School or Group members	School Plus members
Regulation strategies classroom posters	✔️	✔️	✔️
Animated guides with wellbeing exercises	✔️	✔️	✔️
Full curriculum including 35 lessons for EYFS-KS2	❌	✔️	✔️
3 expert led on-demand courses to help you deliver the curriculum with confidence	❌	❌	✔️

PSHE education plays a vital role in promoting children and young people's mental health and wellbeing.

As a PSHE teacher, you want to feel confident that you are doing right by your pupils and employing a fully researched, pedagogically sound approach that can support their wellbeing and attainment both now and in the future.

Each activity plan has been developed to support learning in the prime area of personal, social and emotional development (PSED) as part of the Early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework. These plans provide early learning experiences to support children’s future PSHE education, and are precursory to the Foundations for Wellbeing lessons for key stage 1.

Learning objectives

PSHE Association Programme of Study

DfE statutory guidance

Year 1

Lesson 1: Noticing feelings

To learn about feelings.

Lesson 2: Distraction

To learn about distraction.

Lesson 3: Paying attention to pleasant feelings

To learn how to pay attention to pleasant feelings.

Lesson 4: Helpful and unhelpful thoughts

To learn about helpful and unhelpful thoughts.

Lesson 5: Reacting

To learn about different ways of reacting.

Year 2

Lesson 1: Noticing and naming feelings

To learn about thoughts and feelings and how noticing them can be helpful.

Lesson 2: Different distractions

To learn about different kinds of distraction.

Lesson 3: Changing thoughts and feelings

To learn about different ways of changing thoughts and feelings.

Lesson 4: Managing unhelpful thoughts

To learn how to manage unhelpful thoughts.

Lesson 5: Reactions and responses

To learn about ways of managing reactions and responses.

H12. how to recognise and name different feelings

H18. different things they can do to manage big feelings, to help calm themselves down and/or change their mood when they don’t feel good

H19. to recognise when they need help with feelings; that it is important to ask for help with feelings; and how to ask for it

H24. how to manage when finding things difficult

H27. about preparing to move to a new class/year group

Mental wellbeing

that there is a normal range of emotions (e.g. happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, nervousness) and scale of emotions that all humans experience in relation to different experiences and situations.
how to recognise and talk about their emotions, including having a varied vocabulary of words to use when talking about their own and others’ feelings.
where and how to seek support (including recognising the triggers for seeking support), including whom in school they should speak to […]

Respectful relationships, including friendships

practical steps they can take in a range of different contexts to improve or support respectful relationships.

Year 3

Lesson 1: Exploring emotions

To learn about noticing thoughts, feelings and emotions, and how emotions vary in strength.

Lesson 2: Understanding distraction

To learn about different kinds of distraction and some ways they can be managed.

Lesson 3: Managing thoughts and emotions

To learn about helpful patterns of thoughts and emotions.

Lesson 4: Managing worries

To learn how to recognise and manage worry.

Lesson 5: Managing responses

To learn how feeling calm can help us to manage our responses.

Year 4

Lesson 1: Describing emotions

To learn how describing emotions and their intensity can help to manage them.

Lesson 2: Managing internal and external distractions

To learn about internal and external distractions and how they can be managed.

Lesson 3: Exploring different thinking habits

To learn about different ways of thinking and how this impacts wellbeing.

Lesson 4: Different ways to manage worries

To learn strategies that can help manage worries and positively impact emotions and behaviour.

Lesson 5: Strategies for calm

To learn strategies that can help someone manage their responses.

Year 5

Lesson 1: Noticing and naming emotions

To learn about managing thoughts and emotions in everyday situations.

Lesson 2: Directing attention and managing distractions

To learn about helpful and unhelpful distractions and strategies to manage them.

Lesson 3: Changing thinking habits

To learn about brain plasticity and how changing thinking habits can support wellbeing.

Lesson 4: Rumination and worry

To learn how changing the way someone thinks about an event can support wellbeing.

Lesson 5: Managing reactivity

To learn how managing reactivity can support wellbeing.

Year 6

Lesson 1: Regulating emotions

To learn how noticing and naming emotions can help someone to regulate them.

Lesson 2: Managing distraction

To learn a variety of strategies for managing internal and external distractions.

Lesson 3: Developing positive thinking habits

To learn about developing positive thinking habits and how this supports wellbeing.

Lesson 4: Manging rumination and worry

To learn about the impact of rumination and worry on emotions and behaviour, and strategies for managing rumination and worry.

Lesson 5: Managing stress

To learn about managing stress.

Programme of Study

H15. that mental health, just like physical health, is part of daily life; the importance of taking care of mental health

H16. about strategies and behaviours that support mental health – including how good quality sleep, physical exercise/time outdoors, being involved in community groups, doing things for others, clubs, and activities, hobbies and spending time with family and friends can support mental health and wellbeing

H17. to recognise that feelings can change over time and range in intensity

H18. about everyday things that affect feelings and the importance of expressing feelings

H19. a varied vocabulary to use when talking about feelings; about how to express feelings in different ways

H20. strategies to respond to feelings, including intense or conflicting feelings; how to manage and respond to feelings appropriately and proportionately in different situations

H21. to recognise warning signs about mental health and wellbeing and how to seek support for themselves and others

H29. about how to manage setbacks/perceived failures, including how to re-frame unhelpful thinking

H17. to recognise that feelings can change over time and range in intensity

H24. problem-solving strategies for dealing with emotions, challenges and change, including the transition to new schools

H35. about new opportunities and responsibilities that increasing independence may bring

H36. strategies to manage transitions between classes and key stages

Foundations for Wellbeing is an engaging, developmentally sequenced and strengths-based curriculum that promotes self-regulation and supports pupils to develop a positive sense of self.

Consisting of 35 fully resourced lessons, a teacher handbook, posters, animated guides and embedding activities, Foundations for Wellbeing is designed to be taught over a half-term and covers five topics in the same order each year.

By covering the same topics in the same order each year, Foundations for Wellbeing enables learning to be revisited, consolidated and extended, as well as aligned across the entire school community – allowing it to inform, or sit at the heart of, a whole school approach to promoting mental health and wellbeing.

Foundations for Wellbeing introduces evidence-based self-regulation strategies that can be used by pupils to help them manage their attention, thoughts, emotions and behaviour across a wide range of situations. It also covers age-appropriate and empowering neuroscience; supports pupils to recognise when they might need to seek support from a trusted adult; and includes suggestions for activities to extend and embed learning outside of dedicated PSHE education lessons.

Additionally, every lesson meets the highest pedagogical standards for PSHE education. For instance, every lesson contains clear learning outcomes, suggestions for adapting activities and opportunities for you to gauge pupils’ starting points and learning. In so doing, they empower you to ensure that meaningful learning takes place and that learning can be adapted to meet the needs of pupils.

Learn more about the value of mental health education vs mindfulness.
Foundations for Wellbeing is informed by the neurodevelopmental theory of mental health and wellbeing capacities and the latest research on social and emotional learning and mental health education, meaning that both the content and format of Foundations for Wellbeing is evidence-based.
There are significant concerns about children’s mental health.

Official statistics from 2023 NHS Digital research showed that approximately one in six 8- to 10-year-olds in England had a probable mental disorder, with the prevalence increasing during the teenage years.

And unless addressed early on, we know these challenges can affect not only wellbeing but behaviour, attendance and learning — now and into adolescence.

It is also clear from decades of research that evidence-based programmes that teach pupils attitudes, knowledge and skills that can support their mental health and wellbeing also have the potential to improve their social relationships, health outcomes and attainment – creating happier and more focused classrooms.