CATCH IT • CHECK IT • CHANGE IT
Emotional Wellbeing Activity, Take-Home Task and Staff Facilitation Guide

Help pupils recognise unhelpful thoughts, examine the available evidence and develop a more balanced, realistic way of thinking.

Informed by principles commonly used within cognitive behavioural approaches, this practical resource teaches pupils a memorable three-step process:

• Catch it – identify the exact thought.
• Check it – consider the evidence for and against it.
• Change it – create a thought that is more accurate, fair and useful.

The focus is on balanced thinking rather than forced positivity. Pupils are encouraged to acknowledge genuine difficulties while questioning assumptions, predictions and unhelpful conclusions.

The bundle contains three distinct resources:

1. Pupil activity
   A structured worksheet featuring a completed example, space to explore an individual thought, evidence-for and evidence-against sections, a balanced-thought prompt and ideas to test next.

2. Take-home task
   A follow-up activity that helps pupils practise the three-step process independently and apply their learning to additional thoughts outside the initial session.

3. Staff facilitation guide
   Practical guidance for introducing the activity safely and effectively, including a good-practice question bank, collaborative language, examples and non-examples, support for pupils who become stuck and clear safeguarding reminders.

Suitable for:

• One-to-one pastoral intervention
• Emotional wellbeing or resilience work
• Tutor or mentoring sessions
• Supporting pupils to challenge unhelpful thinking patterns

Designed with secondary-aged pupils in mind, the resources are visually engaging without feeling overly primary. The download includes editable Word documents and a print-ready PDF version of the main pupil activity.

This is a reflective educational resource and is not a substitute for clinical assessment or therapy.