Research Ready Schools Programme

An innovative way to involve young people in the world of research

Involving the general public, as well as service users, in mental health research is something we in the Child Oriented Mental Health Innovation Collaborative (COMIC) team are passionate about, as expressed through our wildly successful Young Person’s Advisory Network (YPAN). This has allowed for the team to conduct Patient and Public Involvement (PPI), an innovative methodology that allows the inclusion of individuals in research without the need for long term commitment. Through this collection of different groups in the community, we can give young people a platform to utilise their voice and aid in our research by using their lived experience.

The YPAN stands for more than to collate groups of young people, we intend to focus on developing and aiding young people in their professional and personal development through different outreach projects.

In September, the COMIC Team visited a local primary school to deliver an introduction to research programme to year 4 children. The programme ran over 6 weeks and covered topics such as ‘what is research?’, ‘what does a researcher look like?’, ‘why is mental health research important?’, ‘why is it important to include the voices of children and young people in research?’, ‘how do we collect data in research projects?’. The children learned about the importance of diversity in research and making sure everyone is represented and able to share their lived experience. Over the 6 sessions, different members of the COMIC team visited the school to aid the PPI lead in delivering the sessions often utilising their skills in the team to help guide the pupils from their lived experience.

By involving children in research from a young age, we hope to help breakdown stigma around mental health and help empower them to take an active role in their own and others mental health and wellbeing.

By the end of the 6 weeks, the children were able to work in groups to discuss potential research questions and design the collection of the data. They surveyed their classmates and put the background information, data and conclusions together on a poster, which they presented to the class. The children gained confidence in sharing their ideas with others and enjoyed finding out new information to use on their posters and were awarded certificates in an assembly with the whole school.

From this outreach project we have begun to gain insight into what children know and understand about both mental health and research, but it has also given the pupils the invaluable opportunities to begin their own research journeys with a better understanding of what constitutes good practice. Through examples of research methodologies, we were able to run a small PPI session early on in the programme whereby we asked the class to write down how they would feel if they were asked to take part in a research study; the answers were varied from ‘Very happy’ and ‘It’s fun and you can do loads of exciting activities’ to ‘Confused’ and ‘I do not like it because it’s crowded’. We then followed up with the pupils and class teacher to gain some feedback about how they felt the sessions were for them, some of the pupils said:

“It was fun and exciting!”

“The sessions made me think about science and the human body more”

“exercise if good for my mental health”

“I would absolutely take part in research!”.

The overwhelming positivity continued with 10 respondents’ comments that they would like to take part in research in the future and that they began to practice mindfulness techniques outside of school, these included; playing football, listening to music, playing outside with friends and cuddling mum and dad. Following the success of this first round we are now planning to implement the programme into more schools and adapt it so that we can apply this to secondary schools as well.