Samantha Chapman Hello, my name is  Sam Chapman. I’m a Registered Mental   Health Nurse and a Specialist Practitioner in  Mental Health. I’m going to be presenting some   information to you today about co-producing  research with children and young people.   I also, as well as being a Registered Mental  Health Nurse, I have a master’s in public   health and health promotion, and so, one of  the things I’m really interested in is how   we promote good mental health. How can we think  about mental health in terms of enabling people   to have the good elements of mental health,  rather than just focusing on the illness end? I should say that I’m a doctoral student.  I’m partway through, I work full-time,   and I’m doing my doctoral studies outside of  my full-time role. I’m looking at children and   young people’s mental health in my doctoral  studies, and I’m also a Teaching Fellow at   Aston University. It’s really lovely to be here,  to be able to share this with you, particularly   if thinking about doing research yourself with  children and young people and co-production. So, in this presentation, I’ll briefly  introduce you to the research that I’m doing,   just so you have an idea and can contextualise  what I’m talking about. Within that research   there are four phases, so I’ll show you  what those are. I’ll give you a very brief   overview of co-production with children and  young people, and then look at some of the   approaches that I’ve taken to co-produce the  research with young people. Also, just to note   that I use interchangeably the phrases “children  and young people,” “young people” and “pupils,”   but I’m referring to the same group of  young people within this presentation. So, the research that I’m doing is exploring  how good mental health can be enabled within   the school environment. Within my methodology,  I’m taking a qualitative approach and I’m using   critical ethnography. So, ethnography is  a research methodology that talks about   going out into the field. So, when I  first started my research journey, I   thought the field, really, in my mind, was  about the top picture, it was this blank,   empty canvas, and wasn’t really quite sure  what else was in that field. And following   finishing the data collection, it’s become  quite clear to me that the field is much more   rich and diverse and has all these different  terrains within it that as the Researcher,   we’re there to try and uncover and find out about.  So, really, critical ethnography and ethnography,   the field, is represented much more accurately  in the bottom photo. And so, in my research, I’m   going into a school perhaps with the top image in  my mind, about me not knowing much about schools   and good mental health and how they support  children to have good mental health. But the   idea is that towards the end of my research, I’m  coming out with a very different mindset, a very   different set of knowledge and epistemology  around understanding the school environment. As I mentioned, it was a four-phased  approach, which I’ll talk about,   and I used co-production with pupils. Before  I went into the field to do the research,   it’s worth noting, because it’s embedded within  the different phases of the data collection that   I did, that I did a concept analysis on,  what is good mental health? And the reason   I did this is because ‘good mental health’  is a phrase that’s often used in literature,   and I’m really needed to understand what good  mental health is, what the antecedents are   and how we promote it, before I can go into the  field and look for that and research it myself. So, I’m going to provide a very brief overview  of the four phases that I did within the critical   ethnography data collection phase of my research.  And this, really, if you’re thinking about doing   co-production with children, or even research  within a school, this might give you an idea of,   kind of, the timelines that I used and  how that might fit with your own research.   So, I did the ethnography, the being within  the field, across a whole school year,   bearing in mind that I do work full-time,  so I wasn’t able to commit five days a week   to going into the field, and that’s  why it was spread across a year. So,   I went into the school field one day a week for  all of the – one whole school academic year. So, in September 23, I went in and I started  the school year with all the other pupils and   the Teachers and the school staff, and  probably for about the first six months,   because this is a completely new environment to  me, that’s where I really embedded myself in the   observational element of my data collection.  And I spent time, those days in the school,   in every aspect of school life, for example,  I even spent a day in the school kitchens   working from seven until three in the afternoon,  preparing all the school meals across the school   day. So, that was my first, sort of, six months,  really, and it was true what you read in the data,   that the more you go on, the more you’re  becoming less descriptive in your observations,   and you start to become more nuanced and detailed  in the information that you’re looking for.   And so, some of those observations were  guided by what the children wanted me   to see and some of it was guided by what  staff wanted to me to see, and then the   other observations were guided by what I was  seeing and what I wanted to explore further. The second phase of my research I  started in March 24. So, in March 24,   I’d had a group of pupils from years eight  and nine within the secondary school,   who were going to be working with me to  co-design the research going forward. So,   I carried out number of workshops and the  children within those workshops were making   decisions with me, and independently of me, in  how the future steps of the research might look. The third phase was interviews with school staff,  which I did towards the end of the school year,   so we’re looking at end of May, and then, in  July, right at the end of the school year,   was when I did my interviews with children  and young people at the school. So,   within the co-production work that I did with  children, they really did influence the design   of the school staff interviews, and, also,  the children and young people’s interviews,   but they did shape some of the observations that  I did in phase one. As I would listen to them,   or they would come up to me and they would  say, you know, “I’ve heard you’re looking   at this. If that’s what you’re looking for  you should really go into this lesson,” or,   “you should really go and explore this part of  the school, or go and talk to this Teacher.” So, a very brief introduction,  an overview, I guess, of where   I’m coming at with what co-production is.  So, co-production with children and young   people is more than consulting and asking  children and young people what they think.   Its values lie in genuine power sharing. As the  adult, we have to be reflective and responsive   to the power that we hold, as adults, both  through our own lens and through the lens   of children and young people. So, through  this research, it became really clear how   those two worlds can differ considerably,  the adult world and the child’s world. So, for example, in my observations, during phase  one, I would see some really excellent examples of   what I thought were really good ways in which the  school were enabling children to have good mental   health, but when I would talk to the children  and young people during workshops about this,   they would really have quite an opposite  experience of what I thought was good practice.   That really opened my eyes up to realising  how reflective we need to be when we’re   working with children and young people in that  co-production phase, because the children’s   worlds are very different to ours and see things  very, very differently and experience them very,   very differently. And I think we have  a social responsibility to enable those   voices and experiences of the children to  come through in research that is about them,   and that became really clear to me as I moved  through the different phases of the research. So, phase one, I’ve touched upon this a little  bit, this was the observational element,   where the children were able to influence the  spaces and the experiences that I had. They were   really insightful into sharing the school world  with me through the children’s lens. Whereas   adults would lend me towards – or lead me towards  meetings and all of the excellent practices that   they were doing, children were leading me much  more towards areas of relationships, “Come and   observe this relationship,” or, “Come and observe  how this individual manages this space.” And it   wasn’t necessarily negative, there were, you  know, really positive practices, as well,   but also elements where children experience things  different to how we would imagine as adults. Phase two was the co-production workshops.  This was the, I would say, the main area,   really, where the co-production really started  to take place with children and young people. So,   I’d done six months of observation,  but the, kind of, experiences I had,   where I would share some of my observations with  children and they would contradict me and say,   “No, that’s not at all how we experience things as  a child, that might be what you think as an adult,   but as a child our experience is very different,  and we wouldn’t agree,” that was the time,   really, when I realised that children  needed to have a really big part. I was   already doing co-production, but I think those  conversations with children really deepened my   appreciation and respect for the reasons why  we co-produce with children and young people. And so, for all four phases of the research, I  submitted ethics applications and had to have   them approved through formal ethical boards, so  phase two was approved through an ethical process.   Because I was researching good mental health  in schools, I really wanted to make sure that   the demographic of the young people that  were co-producing the research were not   only representative of the school demographic,  but was also representative of the continuum   that is mental health. And so, often when we talk  about children and young people’s mental health,   we can think about that from an illness  perspective, and I really wanted to make   sure that within this research, I was capturing  how we promote the mental health of all children. Not just those who at that moment in time,  need additional support, but how do we work   with promoting good mental health for all children  so that their mental health is strengthened across   the lifespan? And so, I submitted an ethics  application in the usual processes that you   are likely to be familiar with. I submitted  the – I had to produce parent information   and consent forms, young person’s information  and consent forms, and then information and an   access letter request form for the Teacher  – the Headteacher of the school, as well. Within designing the co-production workshops,  it became known – it was made known to me to   reword all of my paperwork so that I wasn’t using  the word ‘children’. So, when I consulted with   some of the Heads of Year, particularly for the  year groups that I was looking to recruit from,   they strongly suggested that they’re really  trying to work with children to get them to   move from being in a position of thinking that  they are children who are being told what to do,   to a position of owning that they’re a young  person with independence and opinions that matter   and should be heard. And so, from the beginning,  really, of the co-production ethical application,   everything was reworded from ‘children’ to  ‘young people’. So, once all of those went out,   I then was looking to recruit six pupils from  Year Eight and six pupils from Year Nine,   and the idea was that I would have ten – 12  pupils in total, and they would work together   as one workshop, and we would meet every week  for half an hour, for a period of five workshops. So, setting up the workshops and getting that  ethical approval was obviously something that   was necessary. So, how I did that, it was a  challenge, because I worked only one day a week   within that school and wasn’t there every  day to be accessible to answer questions,   if there were any questions that came up from the  information sheets. And it was a large school,   it was a large secondary school, and there  were 18 forms in the secondary school. So,   in order to talk to the pupils about the research,  I either had – I had a couple of options. I either   went into every form individually and spoke  to the forms and explained who I was and what   the work was that I was hoping to do, and then  if they were interested, for them to come and   collect participant information sheets and consent  forms. The most obvious and easier option, which   I didn’t do, was going into a school assembly and  talking to the whole of Year Eight and Year Nine,   in their individual school assemblies, and  I would have all of them there together. So, there’s a couple of reasons I didn’t do  that, the first one was that when talking   to school staff, they felt that it was too big a  group to have a, kind of, more personal approach   to talking about the research and, you know,  opening up those conversations about good mental   health with pupils. And the other reason,  really, was a logistical reason. I hadn’t   thought about booking that in until I was six  months into being in the school, and of course,   if anyone has worked in a school they’ll know  that the whole school calendar is booked up   right from the beginning, really. So, if you are  looking to do co-production work in a school,   it’s getting those dates in as early as possible  so that you can have that assembly time, if that’s   something that you need. When I looked at the  assembly calendar, by, sort of, February/March,   there was really little space for me to go in and  talk to the for – to the year groups individually. So, what I ended up doing was creating an  introductory video, because I couldn’t go   round 18 forms and give them all a ten-minute  presentation in person. That just would not have   been logistical and would have taken me months to,  potentially, do, because I was only at the school   one day a week. So, what I did was an introductory  video, which then all Form Tutors played during   form to their class, and then if they had any  questions, or if they were interested, they could   then collect an information sheet and consent form  for themselves, and then separate forms for their   parents and guardians, as well. So, forms didn’t  go out to every child. Only the young people that   were interested in being involved would come  up and take those forms and take those home. I made it really clear in the forms and in  the video that if anybody had any questions,   where I would situate myself during breaks  and lunchtime. And I would stand in those   places for a couple of weeks when I was at  the school, during breaks and lunchtime,   so that people knew who I was and were  able to approach me for questions,   if they had any. By that time, I’d been  at the school at least six months anyway,   and so the children in Year Eight and Nine were  familiar with me, they’d seen me around, they   knew who I was, and I’d been introducing myself  to groups of them during different observations. So, if we were in class, for example,  and I saw a group of children looking   at me a bit suspiciously and wondering who I  was, I would go over at an appropriate time,   and just introduce myself and let them know  that I wasn’t really there to, kind of – to be   doing any assessments, and that I was there to  look at good mental health in schools. And so,   some of them already knew who I was, and I would  say the majority of them were at least familiar   with my, kind of, my physical appearance,  not necessarily knowing why I was there,   but knew that I was part of being in  the school across that year. So, yeah,   I was able to answer any questions, and there was  examples here of the participant information and   consent forms that went out to both parents  and guardians, and to pupils, as well. So, in total I was doing five workshops  with 12 children. That was the intention,   and those workshops would be 30 minutes each.  It was really difficult to think about where I   situated those 30-minute workshops within the  school day, because at this particular school,   three of the school years had a different  timetable – times of timetable, compared   to the other two years. And so, Years Eight and  Nine at the school had conflicting timetables,   the children were in class at different times,  they were on break at different times and they   were on lunch at different times. And the only  time that their timetables corresponded with   one another was during the last session,  the last teaching session of the day. And so, ideally, I would have liked to have  really thought through, kind of, what sessions   the children were having and ensuring they didn’t  miss anything that was vital, and I did do that,   but I was very limited to, really, if I wanted  to get these two forms of groups together,   Years Eight and Nine, the only time I could do  that was on a last period of the day. And so,   through talking with the Headteacher,  and also, talking to the Heads of Years,   we agreed that a Friday, the last 30 minutes  of the school day on a Friday, was probably   the most suitable time to do the workshops. We  did consider if there was anything across the   weeks coming up that would mean we would have to  skip a workshop and move it onto the next week,   just in case there was anything, like, mock exam  – not mock exams as in GCSEs, but, you know,   any tests coming up that children needed to be  part of. Fortunately, there wasn’t anything,   but that would have had to have been  considered in putting forward these workshops. So, setting up the workshop space. Once ethical  approval was agreed, I sent out information to   parents to say that their child and themselves  had been offered a place on the workshop, that   they’d expressed an interest and that the parent  had signed the permission forms. And so, out of   courtesy, I wrote back to parents and guardians  to say, “Just to let you know, they have been   offered a place and this is the plan. These are  the dates that they will be coming out of lesson   for half an hour, and we – they will be engaging  in this workshop as part of that half an hour.” It was really important to me that we – that  I needed to break down that power and the   barriers of power that are often visible to pupils  within the school setting. I only had five weeks,   so two and a half hours in total, for children  to build a trust with me, to feel like they   could be honest with me, to feel like their  voice was really going to be listened to,   and for them to believe that they were a really  important and integral part of this research.   I wanted the young people to know that they were  having space within the research to shape it,   to make decisions about it, and I really  needed them to know that there was – there   wasn’t anything within that space that was wrong  when they were talking to me, that the things that   they said I would listen to. And, in order to do  that, I really had to break down those school rule   barriers. So, obviously, safeguarding is essential  and keeping children safe is essential, but some   of those what I would perceive to smaller rules,  were really quite big and significant rules that I   was able to be more flexible on when creating the  impression and setting up a safe that was really   – a space that was really safe for children to  be trusting in and to share their experiences. So, one thing I did was create – there was a long  table, a round table, and I put chairs everywhere.   I didn’t just put out enough chairs for the amount  of children coming. I put chairs everywhere,   so children could decide where they wanted to  sit. So, often, in schools, there is a teaching   plan – not a teaching plan, a seating plan, and  pupils are told they have to sit in certain parts   of the classroom. So, for me, I wanted pupils to  know that they could sit wherever they wanted,   wherever they were comfortable, to have these  conversations. I also wanted them to know that   those spaces were not rigid, that if during the  half an hour they wanted to get up and move,   or even stand, that they could do that, or if they  wanted to go and sit next to somebody else next   week, rather than the person there were sitting  to this week, they could also do that. They had   freedom to move about, and mobilise themselves  in that space, as it made them comfortable. The other thing they could do was that they could  go to the toilet whenever they wanted. So, in the   school that I was doing my research in, they had  toilet passes, so if children wanted to go to the   toilet during class time, they had to first, ask  and were given permission to either go or not go.   And for some children, they had a toilet pass  that gave them permission to go to the toilet,   if they did need it. So, within this workshop  space, I wanted children to know that they could   go to the toilet. If they needed to go, they  just needed to let me know where they were,   and then they could go. That I wasn’t  going to say that they couldn’t go. One of the things that made this possible, in  terms of keeping children safe, was that the   school I was doing the research at had I guess  what you would call, like, an ‘inclusion suite.’   I know lots of schools use that phrase, that was  a side – a separate area to the school, within   the school building, that had closed doors and it  was a tap-in system with a card that Teachers used   to open and let people in and out – let pupils in  and out of that space. But that was considered to   be an inclusion space, where if children had an  inclusion pass, they could go to – as, kind of,   as a regulation space for their mental health  and wellbeing. There was a calming room in there,   and some calming classroom spaces. And within  there, was the larger classroom that I used for   the workshops, and there was also a single toilet,  within there, as well. And so, I was able to,   kind of, ensure that children were safe when they  went to the toilet, and know where they were,   ‘cause they were in that area within the  school that, if they wanted to leave,   the Teachers had to swipe them in and out.  And the Teachers within that setting knew   what I was doing, so they were mindful of  the children that were coming in and out. The other way in which I tried to break down the  barriers within the workshop to children was to   let them eat during the 30 minutes. So, some  of the pupils had snacks in their bag that they   perhaps hadn’t eaten during lunch or breaktime,  and for some pupils, they had, like, a bag of   crisps, or they had a chocolate bar, or, you know,  a specific can of – like, carton of orange juice.   And I would say to them, you know, “You’re really  welcome if you’re hungry to use the time here   while we’re having conversations to eat a snack,  if you’ve got one in your bag.” And the reason I   did that is because we’re much more comfortable, I  think, as humans, in socialising, or at least many   of us are, and, kind of, eating is a sociable act,  and so it was really a way of helping the children   to relax into that space, and knowing it was  their space in which they could be comfortable. I also bought in a tub of lollipops, just  those little, you know, lollipops on a stick,   and I put a few of those, like, a  little small pile of those on the side,   and said to children that if they wanted  one, they could just access them and have one   during the workshop if it helped to get their  brain thinking. So, it’s just some, kind of,   really informal, but really clear, messages to  the young people that this was a safe space,   that was different to a classroom, that the  rules were different and they could open   up in this space, because they could  see that those rules were different. And an example of that is that on the end of  the first workshop, one of the Year Eight pupils   asked me, and they said, “So, can I just check?”  they said, “we could have our shirt hanging out,   in this workshop and you won’t ask us to tuck  it back in?” And I said, “No, you know, I’m not   really interested in whether your shirt is tucked  in or out in this workshop. What I’m interested   in is what you think about the school environment  and mental health for children and young people.” And I should also mention, the other thing  was, from the very beginning of my research,   I insisted that I was always called Sam.  I didn’t want – I wanted to break down   that power of hierarchy from the beginning, and  some children just naturally called me ‘Miss’,   and I would correct them every time, I would  say, “I’m not a Miss, I’m a Sam,” and so,   they got used to calling me Sam, and  within the workshops they called me Sam. And during the workshop space, when  children were having those conversations,   I really sat back and listened, and I almost  overexaggerated the positive reinforcement of   the discussions that they were having. I really  wanted them to know that I wasn’t there to judge   them and what they were saying, and that I was  really interested in their comments. And so,   I would say a lot of things, like,  “It’s really important for me to   listen to what you have to say,” or,  “I’m finding this really interesting,   can you tell me more about that? That’s a  really interesting point that you’ve just said.” Other things I would do would be, I’d say  things, like, “That’s a really interesting point,   do other people share that same experience,  or can you think of other examples that would   help me understand what it’s like to  be your age and at school?” And then,   sometimes I would share some of my observational  findings. So, I would say things, like,   “This is what I’ve seen, do you think that’s  true, or do you see that in a different way?”   And almost always, the children and  young people saw it in a different way,   and they showed me how my observations were  really being looked at through an adult lens   and how they bought a completely different  perspective to the research that I was doing. So, I’m going to talk a little bit through the  different workshops and what I did, and how I,   kind of, maintained some integrity in knowing  which child said what across the different   activities. I didn’t record the voices  of the young people during the research.   I really just took lots of photographs and was  recording the conversations we were having through   alternative ways, through activities, and I’m  going to talk you through those activities now. So, the first thing I needed to do in workshop  one, because my research is talking about good   mental health and exploring good mental health, I  really needed to know what the children understood   to be good mental health, and what the language  was that they were using to talk about it,   so that across the rest of the research, when I  was in the workshops and when I was designing the   research interviews with the children for  the children, that I could be using their   language. So that I could get the best and the  richness of information out of the children. And so, the first activity here is where I gave  – I split the children up into two groups, and   I gave them a flipchart and I asked them to write  down what they thought good mental health was, and   that was before we did anything. And the reason I  did it before anything else was because I didn’t   want to influence the things that they said by  any future activities. And they wrote down their   ideas in different coloured pens, so I was able to  document which young person used which colour pen. So, that’s how I was able to  track whether, you know, it was   a Year Nine pupil or a Year Eight  pupil, just in case there was any,   kind of, difference across any demographic,  really. I wanted to keep an eye on that,   but without it being explicit to the children.  They knew that I would be taking photographs,   that was in the participant information,  but I just wanted to be able to record,   kind of, who was saying what, really, without  having a Dictaphone, or a, kind of, a computer   set up the room, and so you can see where they’ve  used different colour pens within this example. And then the next activity that I did on  the first work – during the first workshop,   was this concept analysis that I mentioned right  at the beginning of this presentation, about what   is good mental health? I dissected all of the  concept analysis up that I had already written,   and I tried to reshape some of the things that  I’d written within – or identified within that   concept analysis, tried to reshape the language  a little bit, into more child-friendly language,   and then I created flash cards, and that’s  what you can see here in this second image. And what I did was, I gave every child a  pack of flashcards, and I just asked them   to filter through the flashcards and tell me  if they thought – which flashcards represented,   or were important for, good mental health  for them. Kind of, in their understanding   of good mental health as a young person, did  they think what was on that flashcard was an   important factor to consider when  thinking about good mental health,   or did they think it wasn’t relevant, at all?  So, they all had a pack of flashcards that were   identical. They weren’t set up in any particular  order, they were shuffled and moved around, and   every child’s pack would’ve been in a different  order, but they would’ve all had the same. And then I gave them two envelopes, as you  can see here in the little orange envelopes,   one of them had a cross on and one of them had a  tick. The cross, they were to put in this envelope   the cards that they didn’t think were relevant  to exploring good mental health, and the ones   with the tick were the ones that the young people  thought, yes, these were relevant and, kind of,   important factors to explore and consider when  thinking about good mental health. So, once   they’d split their piles up, I then asked them,  out of the yes pile, to identify the ones that   they thought were essential. They could identify  as many as they wanted to, so they could identify   two, three, and as you can see on the slide here,  this person identified nine out of their yes pile   that they thought were critical and essential for  good mental health in children and young people. You’ll see on this right image that there are some  stickers. So, this was one of the strategies I   used to, again, maintain that integrity of knowing  which pack belonged to which person. So, each   child was given a sticker, and they carried that  sticker with them throughout all of the workshops.   So, this – you can see in this photo, just  about, perhaps, that in the bottom right,   this sticker is a yellow background with a blue  star. And on an Excel spreadsheet, I would’ve had   the young person’s name, the colour of the pen  that they would’ve used for the first activity,   and then the sticker that was assigned to them.  So that in all future workshop activities,   anything that I was able to apply a sticker to,   they would always put the yellow background with  the blue star sticker to represent themselves. And just, in the photo here on the right,  you can just see that I just bought   a pack of mixed stickers, I think  there was about 1,000 in the pack,   but there was enough of each variety of sticker,  there was enough to be able to reuse the same   sticker with the same child throughout the  workshops. So, that’s just an example there   of one of the flashcards, and where the child  with the yellow background and the blue star   identified this particular flashcard as being  essential for having good mental health. One of the things that was really interesting  about the flashcard activity was listening to the   comments that the children were saying, and one of  the things that one of the participants said, and   then it generated this discussion, was that – I  had adapted the concept analysis to what I thought   were child-friendly flashcards. So, for example,  you can see the one here that says, “We feel cared   for,” but actually, one of the comments during the  workshop was that “You can tell that these cards   were written by adults, because as children,  we don’t have this type of language to use.” And I thought that was really interesting from  a Year Eight and Year Nine workshop group,   because I, as an adult, didn’t think they –  I didn’t – I thought I’d put together a group   of flashcards that were child-friendly.  And clearly, from what they were saying,   they weren’t as child-friendly as what they  could’ve been, and I think looking back and   reflecting, I would probably rethink how  I would do that again. But that in itself,   generated some really interesting data  about how I’m working with children,   and that was the purpose of this workshop,  was to think about the language that we’re   using and is it the right, sort of, language  when working with children and young people? So, just because – just in case you’re  interested in the issues, kind of,   around language, I’ve just got a couple  of flashcards to read out to you here,   and hopefully, you can see that they’re not  overly medical terms, or overly academic in   the way they’re written, these flashcards. But  clearly, the young people were still saying,   “These are definitely written by adults and not  children.” So, I’ve got “feeling happy with who   we are,” “being able to look after ourselves in  the way that we want,” “feeling hopeful during   difficult times,” and “feeling in control of  our life,” and “being able to be independent   in our own unique style.” So, that’s the type  of language that was within this set of cards   that the children were saying, “This is adult  language and not something that we would use.” So, after workshop one, I then gathered all of  this data and collated it in an Excel spreadsheet,   and this is an example of how I did that. So,  you can see here, on the left-hand column,   you can see that the type of sticker image  is used in place of the child’s name. So,   you – if you look down, you can see that  child one had the green thumb sticker,   child two had the yellow star, child three had  blue star, etc. So, I’m able to align which child   said what within the data, whilst also maintaining  that confidentiality whilst presenting the data. This is just an example of the spreadsheet. It  has actually had some of the columns hidden here,   which you can probably just about to see at  the top of frame of the Excel spreadsheet. But   the very light colour green are the areas that  all the pupils agreed on, well, not – actually,   the light yellow colour is the area that each  particular child said was relevant to good   mental health, and then the dark green area is  where they put their sticker on to say, “This is   essential, this is essential when thinking  about good mental health in young people.” And then if I was to open up the other columns  that are hidden, they’re the ones where   they’re red, where children said, “This isn’t  relevant, this isn’t relevant to us,” or “We can’t   see the relevance.” Interestingly, some of those  areas were things like, spirituality, believing   in God and having a healthy diet, which for me, as  an adult, and within my, kind of, positionality,   I would say were really important factors for  having good mental health. But within this study,   they were the ones that stood out, really, that  some of the children disagreed with, and I was   surprised by, but another example of why it’s  really important to ask children what they think. I’m going to move on to workshop  two. So, in workshop two, I   shared my observations from the first six  months with children. Obviously, not everything,   ‘cause there would’ve been so much to share, but  things that stood out to me as essential things,   or critical things, that really stood out as  impacting children and young people’s mental   health and good mental health, and things that  I really wanted to consider exploring further in   interviews with staff and with children and young  people. However, that’s my adult position and I   was observing those things through my adult eyes,  my adult positionality and my adult lens. And so,   what I wanted to do was ask the pupils within  the workshops if they agreed. Did they think   these were things that I should be exploring  in the interviews, or are there other things? I should also say that during workshop one,  the richness of the conversations that the   children were having meant that as well  as exploring in this second workshop the   things that I’d observed, I was able to  add to this list four additional things   that I thought were really significant  to explore within the interviews. So,   my list extended and grew from having that  first workshop with the children. And the   four things that the young people added in the  workshop were “opportunities to be yourself,   hobbies and interests at school, understanding  your own wellbeing,” and “Teachers.” And so this activity here that you can see,  I drew this thermometer on a worksheet,   and we discussed – I think I put numbers up. You  can probably just about make out the numbers on   the side of the sheet. So, to the right of this  temperature gauge, at the very bottom is zero,   and then numbers one to ten going all the way up  to the top of the green line. So, I explained to   the children and young people that I was going to  give them a series of topics that I’d observed,   or, you know, areas that I’d observed, and whether  they thought this was, again, something that was   relevant and important to them, and that they  thought I should consider exploring further in the   rest of the research. The gold star was for areas  that I spoke about that the children thought was,   yes, like, this is gold star, this is, absolutely,  you must explore this further in the research. And the idea was that the young people would –  I would read them out, and they would put the   number. So, I would say, “Number one, confidence,  children’s confidence,” and then they would put   number one on that temperature gauge, wherever  they thought that fitted for them in terms   of further research design. Majority of the  children didn’t write the number, they wrote   the actual – the wording of the topic that I was  exploring with them, which was neither here nor   there, but just so you can understand why there’s  some numbers and some words on these spreadsheets. This was really important in the research that I  did, because it really builds on the observations   that I made, where they were pupils telling  me to go and observe something because they   thought it was detrimental, perhaps, to their  wellbeing, and then I would go and observe it,   and, as an adult, I would go, “This  is amazing, this is brilliant. Like,   why do children and young people at this school  not, kind of, value this in the same way that I   do as an adult?” And those experiences I  had during the observational phase really   made me appreciate how young people see and  experience things very differently to us. So,   I worked through the list, it was quite a  big list, I worked through the list and then,   children graded where they thought those areas  were. And then, again after the workshop, I was   able to collate that in an Excel spreadsheet,  so I was able to prioritise the different areas   to explore within the research questions for  the staff interviews and the pupil interviews. So, again, you can see here in this slide,  in the image, this is a snippet from one   of the Excel spreadsheets that I  put together from this workshop,   and you can see that I’m using those stickers  again, to identify the individual children. So,   we’ve got the child whose sticker was the yellow  face, the child whose sticker was the blue star,   etc. And then down the left-hand column are all of  the different areas, topics, specific observations   that I wanted to ask the children about, whether  they thought they had any relevance. And then   you can see the green squares were the ones  that scored highly, that scored, kind of,   a – at least a six, seven, eight, nine or ten, and  then the yellow, the yellow highlighted topics,   were the ones where the majority of children  agreed that this was something to explore. And that fed into then the questions that  I would design with the children for the   pupils’ interviews and the staff interviews, and  they, kind of, really helped shape those things.   Thinking that my research is really trying to  unpick how a school can enable children to have   good mental health, so if children are saying  these are the essential things that we need to   be researching, then I really needed to make sure  those were reflected in the research questions. The third workshop was thinking about and  identifying a data collection method. So,   for the staff at the school, I had already settled  on doing interviews, because that was something   that really fitted well with what I was trying to  achieve, but for the children and young people,   I had lots of really creative ideas that I wanted  to do. I wanted to do things, like, walking maps,   or designing a school, not necessarily looking at  doing interviews with small groups of children or   focus groups. I want – I really wanted to  bring in something creative, that tapped   into my creative side, and even thinking about  photo elicitation and those types of methods. However, the children chose their own  research data collection method that I   would be moving forward with, and the way in  which I did that was I gave all the children   a pack of different data collection methods,  and I’ll zoom in on this so you can see it   a bit clearer. So, you can see that they  had different options available to them,   and then they put their sticker on the  different ones that they really liked. I’ve only included in this photograph the ones  that they put a sticker on. There was lots more   options that they didn’t necessarily think were  good ideas, mostly the ideas that were mine.   They weren’t a massive fan of doing a map of the  school. There was a couple that liked to design   a school, but they weren’t so keen on giving me a  tour of the school and showing me and mapping out,   sort of, their experiences within the school.  So, again, another example of how I would’ve   gone down a completely different path as an adult  Researcher, compared to what the children wanted. So, they said they really enjoyed the workshops  and felt that all of those small group activities   that we were doing lent themselves really well  to having open and comfortable discussions.   They also said they wanted to do it  in small groups of about three. So,   it was a little bit of mix up of, kind of,  they wanted the focus group, workshop style,   but in much smaller groups, and so, that’s  how I developed then and moved forward with   doing small group interviews with pupils. And I  used the workshop type of activities to try and,   kind of – the way I was asking questions  was in the same way that I’d worked with   pupils throughout the workshops, because  that’s what they said they favoured.  And so, for the staff workshops, one of the  things that the children contributed to – not   the staff workshops, the staff interviews, one of  the things the children contributed to was who I   would interview. So, I was really clear that I  was interviewing people who, either through my   observations, I thought had demonstrated really  good examples of having, kind of, good strategies   and approaches, perhaps, to promoting good mental  health and enabling children to have good mental   health, or maybe they were in a wellbeing,  pastoral type of role at the school, or maybe   they were in a leadership role at the school  that was also linked to health and wellbeing. And so, there was a core group of people  that I wanted to interview because they were   essential, because they were leaders within  the school within the area of mental health   and wellbeing. And then there was some  staff that I’d observed that I thought,   they would be so great to interview, because I can  see they’ve got a lot to offer his discussion. So,   I shared that with the pupils and then asked  the pupils who they thought I should interview,   and actually, they raised names of staff that  weren’t even on my list of people to interview. And they were quite in agreeance, really, with  one another, when they were listing staff that   they thought helped them to have good mental  health and feel good about themselves, and “to   be happy and healthy,” as they described it. The  staff that the pupils came up with were not staff   that I would’ve considered interviewing, and so,  it was really nice to be able to have children   identify an influence the voice of staff  and who I would interview. Because there   must be something about those staff that  the children are able to connect with on   a mental health and wellbeing level, that  I’m not seeing as a Researcher, and so,   it was really important that they were able  to choose part of the group of participants of   staff that were being interviewed, or, at least,  we could ask them if they would be interviewed. And then, the following workshop, I think we’re on  workshop four, this might’ve been workshop three,   I can’t remember, but in one of the latter  workshops, the children designed the consent forms   and the information sheets for the children and  young people’s interviews. The image on the left   is the information sheet and consent form that I  had designed for the workshops for the children,   and I thought I was being really creative  and colourful, and the children told me they   really boring and not at all exciting, and that  there was no photographs and no colours. And so,   within that workshop, I had asked the children,  like, “Pull it apart, the content has to stay,   the wording, perhaps, has to  say, you know, the, kind of,   the information within it has to stay, but  you tell me what this needs to look like.” And they just started drawing over it. There  was one Year Eight pupil who drew a brain,   and the language that you can see here  is their language. They wanted to make   it really bright and colourful, and to break it  up into sections and have lots of images. So,   there was few more pages to it, but actually  there was a lot more, kind of, fun, interactive,   kind of, images within the information  sheets, and so, they really did help   shape that. I don’t think ethics forms are  necessarily that child-friendly. I probably   still have quite a bit to learn about how to  make them child-friendly, but, as you can see,   this was definitely an improvement on what I  first did at the beginning of the research. And then the final workshop, I really wanted  to give the young people a presence and a   place within the research thesis that I’ll be  publishing, or writing, and any publications   that come of it. I wanted to give them a really  significant marker in that work, that was more   than the data. I felt an obligation to really have  them be seen within the research, and to not – not   necessarily treat them simply as participants,  but to make them visible as independent people   who contributed to the research in their own way.  And so, we spent the last workshop drawing lots   of images that I’ll be using in any, kind of,  published work or in – within my thesis. So,   they all contributed different drawings about  what they thought represented good mental health. And this image here is by Murphy Marcus the Third,  who’s a Year Eight pupil, and Murphy Marcus the   Third drew a picture of going to the sick room,  having hurt their arm during perhaps a lesson,   PE lesson maybe, or during break, and they said  they wanted more than being given a wet paper   towel and a cold compress. They wanted somebody  there to empathise. That wasn’t their words,   their words were, “We want someone  there to care for us,” but essentially,   they were talking about compassion and empathy,  and being seen and being respectfully valued,   that they were in pain or that they were  not feeling on top form, or just feeling,   you know, that something wasn’t quite right.  And that they were mo – they felt they were   worth more than a blue paper towel or a cold  compress on their arm. They really wanted that   interpersonal relationship, that, kind of, caring  relationship, from the adult in the sick room. And then Murphy Marcus the Third, you might be  wondering what that name is. So, the other thing I   wanted to do was to have the children come up with  the name that they wanted to be referred to within   the research. I didn’t want to refer to them as  ‘child one’, or ‘pupil one’, and I didn’t want to   give them a name that they couldn’t, kind of, feel  connected to, or feel reflected with. What came   out of the research a lot was about having a sense  of identity and being able to know who we were,   and so I felt it was really important that they  got to choose their name that would be being used   within the research data. And so, they all drew,  on the last workshop day, they all drew a little   name badge for themselves that has their pseudonym  name on that will be used in the research. And so, that, kind of, captures all of the data  methods that I used and how I did co-production   with the children and young people, and  hopefully, you can see how I really tried   to incorporate and hand over that power of  the research decision-making to the children,   so that the research methods and questions  and what was being asked and who was being   asked, really represented the  experience of the child’s world. Thank you very much for listening, and  good luck if you’re looking at doing   co-production research with children yourself.