A Practical Resource for Supporting Children’s Right to Feel Safe

Liz Bates, Nigel Dodds

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032069159
• eBook ISBN: 9781000465303
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

For effective use, this book should be purchased alongside the storybook - Something Has Happened: A Storybook. This programme of activities, created to be used alongside the storybook, Something Has Happened, has been designed to help children develop their own internal measure of safety, and teaches them how to ask for help if they feel unsafe.

The sessions and activities in this book directly correlate to episodes in the storybook Something Has Happened, covering the fundamental aspects of safeguarding as well as elements of the Protective Behaviours (PB) process. Taking adults and children through a wide range of discussion points and activities, all underpinned by clear guidance, it acts as a starting point to help children understand that being safe from harm is the most important right they have and that the trusted adults around them will always take action to believe and protect them.

Key features of this resource include:

• Session plans that directly link to events in the Something Has Happened storybook
• Clear, detailed and accessible activity plans that can be used with whole classes, small groups or with individual children
• Photocopiable activity sheets

With a concise and accessible introduction to the right to feel safe and Protective Behaviours, this is an invaluable resource for teachers, support staff and other professionals working with both primary and lower-secondary aged children.

Session 1 Feeling Safe

DOI: 10.4324/9781003204510-2

This session introduces an understanding of what feeling safe actually feels like.

As with every session concerned with how we feel or what we think about things, it is really important to reinforce that we can and do all feel differently about things. Later sessions will explore this in more detail.

Discussion Activity

What do we mean by the word safe?

It is likely that children will talk about being safe initially.

Possible answers – not in danger, looked after, okay, not going to get hurt, with people I like, with my friends, with my family, happy, loved, not talking to strangers, or perhaps a box that we lock money in…

How does safe feel?

A trickier question but try to steer the children towards some physical feelings – warm, snuggly, liked, smiley, relaxed, belonging – they may also repeat some of the previous answers.

Read page 1 of the Something Has Happened storybook.

Discussion Activity

What might have happened to Joe?

In pairs or small groups children discuss together and then feed back their suggestions.

Children to share their suggestions. If there are disagreements, remind them that we can all feel differently about things and you will come back to this later.

Possible answers – he’s being bullied, he’s broken friends, he’s lost something, he got into trouble, been hit, mum and dad are arguing, forgot his homework…

All suggestions are valid.

Read pages 2 and 3 of the Something Has Happened storybook.

Joe has got some feelings in his body. These feelings happen when we feel unsafe.

Activity – Joe’s Feelings

Each child to have a body outline (Appendix 1) and draw on pictures of Joe’s feelings of butterflies in his tummy and his heart beating fast.

Can they think of other feelings Joe might be having in his body?

Draw on pictures of those feelings.

These could be:

Jelly legs, feeling sick, wanting to go to the toilet, feeling very hot or cold, shaking all over…

Activity – How are you feeling?

To create some physiological responses in a safe environment.

In the following activities the idea is not to win or guess correctly but to recognise and record the feelings of anticipation, excitement, nervousness which will naturally start to happen. Please avoid saying ‘how does this make you feel?’; rather, say ‘how are you feeling?’.

A giant Jenga game – if you are able to set this up. As each child approaches to remove a block ask them to say aloud what they are feeling, what is happening to their body.

A feely box – as each child approaches the box and puts their hands in ask them to say aloud what they are feeling, what is happening to their body.

Blow up a balloon – ask the children what they are feeling.

(There are other simple activities – a jack-in-the-box, reading ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’, playing hide and seek, anything that creates feelings of anticipation of a surprise or the unknown.)

Draw together any other feelings that were experienced. These can then be drawn on the figure outline.

We call these feelings our Early Warning Signs (EWS). They are signs and signals that our bodies produce automatically. They are a natural response when we feel uncertain or nervous or anxious, threatened, or frightened. It is the body’s way of telling us to be careful, to be aware of danger, that everything might not be okay, that we might not be safe, and they are very important.

(There is much more on this in the storybook Myg and Me and resource My Brilliant Brain.)

So now we know that Joe’s body is sending him Early Warning Signs telling him that everything is not okay and he might not be safe.

We are going to think about ways to help Joe. (If you have any good ideas bring them along to the next session / lesson / meeting.)

We have been describing Joe’s physical feelings. There are other sorts of feelings too.

Emotional feelings like happiness or anger.

Activity – Feelings Alphabet

Create an alphabet of feelings words to display in the class.

Children can work in pairs or small groups to do their own first of all and then share to make one for the class / group.

See Appendix 2 for some suggestions.

Some letters are really tricky so allow lots of latitude and creativity. This alphabet can then be a great reminder / reinforcement of feelings language, introducing a wider emotional vocabulary.

At the end of this session give the children the opportunity to relax and be calm, to move on from thinking about Joe and his EWS. You could do a relaxation exercise or play some calming music. This is a great way to end every session. For some ideas see Appendix 16.

(For much more on anxiety, calming and self-regulation see the My Brilliant Brain resource and Myg and Me storybook.)

Session 2 My Safety Scale

DOI: 10.4324/9781003204510-3

This session introduces the idea of safety along a continuum – in Protective Behaviours called The Safety Continuum. We can often feel unsafe even when we are safe and sometimes we enjoy those feelings.

We can all feel differently about the same thing; we can feel differently at different times; we can feel differently to someone else. (There is lots more on this in the storybook and resource Feel, Think and Do with Ruby, Rafa and Riz.) Our Early Warning Signs can show up at any time along the continuum.

Read pages 4 and 5 of the Something Has Happened storybook.

Discuss what happened and Joe’s feelings.

Just like playing Jenga or using the feely box, Joe does some things for fun and he gets the same feelings. So that seems a bit confusing. How come we get the same feelings when we are doing something for fun and when we are unsafe?

When Joe is riding his bike downhill he can say ‘this is fun to feel scared’. He gets some of those EWS, those feelings in his tummy or his heart beating fast, but it feels like fun.

When Joe is reading in assembly, it’s not fun, he is nervous, but it is exciting and a bit risky because he could make a mistake. He can say ‘I’m risking on purpose’ because he wants to do it. He gets some of those EWS, those feelings of being a bit shaky or his legs feeling like jelly and it is OK because he knows it will stop.

So Joe knows he is still safe when he does those things.

When ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Session 1 Feeling Safe
• Session 2 My Safety Scale
• Session 3 Let’s Help Joe
• Session 4 My Network
• Session 5 Don’t Give Up
• Session 6 Feeling Safer
• 1 – Body Outline
• 2 – Feelings Alphabet
• 3 – My Safety Scale
• 4 – Safety Scale Cards
• 5 – Safety Scale Situations
• 6 – I Feel Safe When…
• 7 – Top 10 Activities
• 8 – Leaf Template
• 9 – Network Template
• 10 – Network Bookmark
• 11 – Network Invitation
• 12 – Persistence Cards
• 13 – Being a Helpful Friend
• 14 – My Safe Safe
• 15 – We All Have the Right to Feel Safe Poster
• 16 – Breathing, Relaxation and Waking Up!