Water in bucket

As someone with two kids, who has just moved to a new area and who has a rather unfortunate predilection for committees, I recently joined a parent council.  I wasn’t sure what to expect of the first meeting, perhaps the standard (though obviously important) discussions on fundraising and parking at the school gates.

However, I was struck by the presentation of a new method they are trialling to support and enable pupils to engage more in class.

I had been aware that they were using a number scale to communicate back to the kids the level of noise that is or isn’t acceptable in a given situation. 1 is silent, 2 is a quiet chat in class, 3 is a loud speaking voice, 4 is for the playground and 5 is the ‘emergency’ voice (which in my house, is also the “it’s not FAIR” voice).  The theory being that by using the right voices and keeping calm during learning time, the kids will be able to achieve more in class.

However, they are also employing this same scale to help the pupils track their emotions using the ‘stress bucket’ model . The school asks the pupils to imagine that they have a bucket that they carry with them, which slowly fills up when they experience different types of emotions or stress.

The teachers discuss what calm looks and feels like (maybe what they feel first thing when they wake up) and will describe that as a “1”, but as the day progresses, things may happen that make them excited, worried or anxious.

Then the bucket starts to fill. Sometimes that can be good. A level 3 might be for getting work done, for a drama or outside activity, however if their bucket level goes past 5, the bucket overflows.

The school then asks the children to think about how they might empty the bucket – maybe by running around playing, sitting quietly reading or drawing, or talking about what has happened. They also emphasise that different things work for different people and ‘overflowing’ buckets can look different for each person.

I wish I had been taught this at school! I suspect my teachers would feel the same too…

Although sometimes I think we can feel strong enough to carry a lot of stress, it’s important for everyone to find activities which help lighten the load.

Ways which help us to keep day-to-day activities going when other pressures build up, without our buckets overflowing. It is also important to reduce what goes into them of course.

Sometimes by avoiding the situations (or people) that cause it to fill faster, and sometimes by confidently (and compassionately too, as everyone has their own bucket issues) saying no when we are already working to capacity.

This is something we all need to do, and if we can teach primary school kids to do it, we have no excuse!

Find out more about the stress bucket model here or here.

We've recently joined more than 130 other organisations in becoming involved with Scotland’s national rural mental health forum, Rural Wellbeing, and we are delighted to launch a new video that we put together with farmer Jim Smith which encourages farmers to talk about any stress or mental health issues that may be affecting them.