Covid: Merthyr school's dog stars in pupil happiness app

Two years of Covid has taken its toll on children's wellbeing, but pupils at one school have devised their own app to boost happiness and health.

Children from Pantysgallog Primary school in Merthyr Tydfil created all the content and built the app.

It includes mindfulness music, healthy recipes and the school's dog Max, who joined the team during the pandemic.

Chloe, 10, who worked on the content, wanted to help as "everyone's mental health has been affected" by Covid.

Work on the app started in September 2021 when pupils decided they wanted to focus on health and wellbeing after all the disruption of the pandemic, including two long periods of learning at home.

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Year five and six pupils filmed videos, made decisions about design and wrote the text, creating all the content as well as building the app, and used augmented reality with the support of Newport-based company Value Added Education.

As well as helpful sections for pupils, it also includes a map of places where families can go to exercise or unwind.

Pupils included their wellbeing dog Max in the app

MiHealth, was finished three months later and is available on the Apple AppStore and has been shared with other schools in the area.

It also led to the school working with the Dragons rugby team, bringing their skills to help the club develop its new app.

Chloe and Luca, both 10, take pride in showing all the features they helped design - the artwork that goes with a choice of soothing music, the Healthy Heroes to encourage children to look after themselves, as well as keep fit videos.

"At home every night whenever I'm anxious or want to fall asleep, I always go on the mindfulness music section to listen to some music pieces that we all made," said Luca.

Pupils Chloe and Luca helped create all the content and built the app too

When pupils returned to school after they closed in March 2020, and again at the start of 2021, staff noticed that some children were struggling to focus on tasks.

Assistant head teacher, Hannah Trinder said: "Our pupils really deeply missed the social connection with their friends and their peers when we were in lockdown periods, so coming back to school and having a huge focus on collaboration and working with one another.. it's really helped them to focus on the areas they they've missed out on during lockdowns."

Eight-year-old Theo added: "I've developed technical skills because before all I knew was how to log on to YouTube" while 10-year-old Zac was happy that a piece of music he chose will help people "relax and not be anxious".

Cavapoo Max, who is a good boy

Head teacher Darren Thomas said wellbeing had always been a priority for the school of 324 pupils and "if the fundamentals of wellbeing are not in place, nothing else comes after it".

Since the pandemic, this is less "ad hoc" and activities are carefully planned.

That included introducing a wellbeing dog, who joined the school in December 2020 - a Cavapoo called Max, who comes to the school with Mr Thomas every day.

"He's in lessons, he's out on the yard, he supports some of our more vulnerable children in counselling lessons - he's just a presence around the school.

"Pupils don't litter anymore, because they know that if they drop things on the floor Max will eat it.

"And if he's in class, everyone knows they have to be quiet because his hearing is so sensitive, so he's been a real success story for us."

A cartoon version of Max in shades takes pride of place on the app and he is "the boss of the Healthy Heroes".

Assistant head teacher Hannah Trinder said the children "made all the decisions"

The children said Max and the app helped them after "difficult" times when they had to learn from home.

However, as the school manages the impact of Covid, the war in Ukraine is casting a shadow.

Mr Thomas added: "We want our children to know what's going on in the world, but it's about approaching that subject in a way that is sensitive to how our children feel."

Eight-year-old Olivia said: "We had an entire assembly based on Ukraine and what it was all about with Mr Thomas and we usually just talk about it with our teachers and they tell us what's going on."

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