Pupils share tips with pen pals in Iraq for coping with stress and mental health

Schoolchildren in London and Iraq are sharing tips on how to cope with stressful situations as part of our Learn to Live campaign.

Pupils at Betty Layward primary in Stoke Newington have weekly mindfulness lessons as part of their curriculum — and they decided to write to the students they are twinned with in Iraq to share what they have learned.

So far more than 330 UK schools have signed up to twin with others across the world as part of our campaign with charity War Child to help support children who have lived through conflict.

The children at Betty Layward have forged a bond with those in Iraq, exchanging letters and videos, and sending instructions on how to play their favourite playground games. The latest step is focused on mental health and wellbeing. The Stoke Newington children described, in pictures, how they use “petal practice” to help them calm down — opening and closing their hand in time with their breathing.

They also explained “finger breathing” — tracing their finger around their hand while breathing in time with their finger movement. They told how they play “pass the water” to build up trust with classmates — sitting in a circle with their eyes shut and handing a cup around.

The children in northern Iraq, who live in a displacement camp, also have lessons about emotions and how to deal with them. The classes run by War Child focus on how to cope with life after having lived amid armed conflict. They plan to write to their London counterparts to tell them what they have learned.

Betty Layward head Jessica Bailey said: “The children have mindfulness lessons each week for a term, helping them deal with difficult situations and being able to cope when something is hard. We say, it’s Ok to have a worry but we need to understand how we manage them.

“We expect the children in Iraq to have the same kind of worries, such as friendships and upsetting someone. But they’ll have other worries such as safety.”

Clemence Muzard, programmes operations coordinator at War Child, said: “The children in Iraq and Stoke Newington will have had different experiences, but a child remains a child. It doesn’t have to be about the war [or] because they are displaced.”

Join our campaign: how you can help

• Adults can sign the petition at www.warchild.org.uk/learn-to-live/petition

• Schools that want their pupils to write to the Prime Minister should go to www.warchild.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/learn-to-live

• Teachers who want to join our project can go to www.warchild.org.uk/learntolive

• For information about twinning your school, visit: www.britishcouncil.org/connectingclassrooms