The use of participatory approaches to group stitching projects to achieve improved wellbeing in a UK special school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health issues.

Paper short abstract:

Can a participatory, stitching project, in a UK special school for pupils with social, emotional and mental health difficulties, enable engagement and progression from individually determined starting points towards improved wellbeing as pupils transition from primary to secondary education? Paper long abstract:

This small-scale case study, part of wider research in the UK, was run over six weeks at the end of the primary phase of education to support a group of boys with social, emotional and mental health difficulties in the transition to secondary schooling.

Classrooms are usually tightly structured environments where adults make the decisions and activities are not voluntary. The behaviour of pupils at the case-study school had already been deemed incompatible with mainstream settings, causing them to be assigned to the special school; a smaller establishment, better able to respond to variability between learners.

The participatory approach of this textile-based research study offered every pupil autonomy and choice; taking on the challenge of variability. Personal context, life experience, attitudes and emotional state significantly influence individual entry points to the process and each pupil's journey to their destination. Controlling their own creative contributions and social and emotional journeys from those subjective entry points brings agency, improved self esteem and pride in a social context.  

Outcomes are similarly individualised; one boy emerged as a leader, sharing his work, and problem-solving, another gradually became able to be, physically, in the shared space without disrupting others. Some progressive elements may seem insignificant but being able to be with others without fighting, to express in stitch the problems with familial relationships, to voice worries about world affairs whilst stitching, are noteworthy, brought about by recognising and validating pupil variability to enable all to achieve.