The Hummingbird Project

09/10/2026

Tomorrow is , and this year's theme is “Lived Experiences Heard: Real Voices, Real Change.”

Being heard starts with having the space, and often the words, to express what we’re feeling, which is something we think about during the Hummingbird Project.

Our six-week Positive Psychology course gives children time to explore ideas such as happiness, mindfulness, kindness, resilience, hope, and their own unique set of character strengths. Activities are followed by the chance to reflect and discuss what they have learned.

As the Hummingbird Project is delivered to whole classes, these conversations aren't just for pupils who have already been identified as struggling. Every child has the opportunity to think about their wellbeing and develop a toolkit of strategies they can use when life is difficult, as well as understanding where they can get help if they need it.

The poster below, drawn by a pupil at Clarendon Primary School, says: "Hummingbird Project is all about how to feel happier, spreading kindness and is a safe space for everyone to speak freely!"

08/10/2026

We're thrilled to announce that Vivian Ku will be travelling all the way from Vancouver, Canada, to run the 2027 London Marathon in support of the Hummingbird Project.

London will be Vivian's eighth marathon, following her first in 2022 and the Chicago Marathon last year. She also has extensive experience of volunteering with children and young people, making the Hummingbird Project and children's mental health a cause close to her heart.

Please join us in cheering Vivian on and, if you can, sponsor her here: https://2027tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/vivian-ku

Running the London Marathon for the Hummingbird Project 🐦💙 For those who know me, you’ll know that running is a huge part of my life and a huge part of my personality too. So I still can’t quite bel

05/10/2026

What makes you happy? This is one of the questions we ask pupils in the first session of the Hummingbird Project. The poster below, drawn by a pupil at St Philip's CE Primary in Atherton, gives us a fantastic list of what makes them happy, including reading the popular Lottie Brooks series.

15/09/2026

A huge thank you to the Sir James and Lady Scott Trust for awarding us £3,000 to support the Hummingbird Project in Bolton.

Bolton is an important part of Hummingbird’s story. Around a third of our delivery takes place in the borough, supporting children and young people through our six-week positive psychology programme, and we work in close partnership with the University of Greater Manchester.

This grant will help us continue bringing Hummingbird into Bolton schools, giving more pupils practical tools to support their wellbeing, resilience and hope. We’re very grateful to the Sir James and Lady Scott Trust for investing in local children and young people.

11/09/2026

Thank you for the warm welcome and we're delighted to work with pupils at Neston Primary School and Nursery again this year.

🐦 HUMMINGBIRD HAS LANDED! 🐦

Today we’re absolutely delighted — and incredibly grateful — to welcome Dr Ian Platt from the Hummingbird Project to Neston Primary for a six-week Positive Psychology programme with all of our KS2 children. 💛

The Hummingbird Project is an evidence-based programme developed with leading university researchers, helping children build resilience, hope, kindness, gratitude, mindfulness and an understanding of their own strengths. 🌱

And we LOVE this because it fits so perfectly with what we believe at .

Mental wellbeing isn’t an add-on here. It’s embedded in school life. We want our children to flourish, not simply achieve.

A huge thank you to the Hummingbird Project and MedEquip4Kids for bringing this opportunity to our children — we can’t wait to see them spread their wings! 🐦💛

02/09/2026

Today we'd like to say a huge thank you to the UKH Foundation for another generous donation of £5,000 towards the Hummingbird Project.

The UKH Foundation supports organisations that improve mental and physical health, primarily across the North West of England.

This gift will help us bring Hummingbird’s six-week positive psychology programme to more local children, giving them practical tools to support their wellbeing, resilience, hope and emotional health.

We're so grateful for the Foundation’s continued belief in our work and the Trustees' commitment to improving children’s mental health across the North West.

20/08/2026

Congratulations to Dr Ian Platt!

We are absolutely delighted to share that our Hummingbird Project Manager, Ian Platt, has been awarded his PhD following nine years of work researching, designing, developing and delivering the programme.

Ian’s thesis, Design, Delivery, and Evaluation of a Positive Psychology Intervention in Secondary Schools: The Hummingbird Project, explored whether brief positive psychology interventions delivered through schools and families could improve wellbeing and reduce mental distress among young people and their families.

Ian’s doctoral research involved more than 3,400 participants and has confirmed that the Hummingbird Project is associated with significant improvements in young people’s wellbeing, resilience, hope and symptoms of mental distress.

A comparative case study found greater improvements among pupils in more deprived areas, highlighting the potential importance of making early mental health support accessible to the communities that may benefit most.

Ian said: “It has sometimes been a very challenging experience, but it has also been extremely rewarding. I’m delighted to have completed my studies and am looking forward to helping the Hummingbird Project go from strength to strength.”

Ian’s PhD adds further academic weight to his extensive practical experience and to the growing evidence base behind Hummingbird.

Congratulations, Ian, on this remarkable and thoroughly deserved achievement!

We will be sharing a longer article on our blog soon, exploring the research findings and their implications in greater depth.

Photo of Ian by Aismath Shahama, University of Greater Manchester.

10/08/2026

We'd like to say a huge thank you to the Focus Foundation for donating an incredibly generous £5,000 to provide ten Hummingbird Project schools with boxes of Positive Psychology resources.

The Focus Foundation is dedicated to helping overlooked and underfunded grassroots charities thrive, with a particular focus on disadvantaged children and young people, positive mental health and wellbeing, and communities affected by social and economic inequality.

The free resources are an important part of the Hummingbird course. Each box contains books, sensory toys, games, communication aids, emotion cards and other materials that help pupils continue putting their learning into practice after the six-week programme has finished.

The boxes also give teachers resources they can use to develop their own skills, revisit Hummingbird activities and support the wellbeing of future pupils. In this way, they extend both the reach and the long-term impact of the course throughout the school.

We're delighted that the Foundation chose to support the Hummingbird Project, and we look forward to welcoming members of the team to visit one of the recipient schools later in the year.

Thank you for helping us create happier, healthier classrooms and ensuring that the benefits of Hummingbird continue long after each course ends.

06/08/2026

We were really pleased to see Andy Burnham’s post today about significant new support and funding for mental health, with a welcome emphasis on helping people earlier and closer to home.

Back in 2017, Andy helped us to launch the Hummingbird Project, when he said: “The Hummingbird Project is so of the moment. It answers the call coming from young people.”

Sadly, since then, that call has only grown louder. In 2024–25, more than one million children in England had an active referral to mental health services, with more than 60,000 having waited over two years for treatment.

The Hummingbird Project, which started as a small pilot reaching 90 pupils in 2017–2018, has now supported more than 11,000 children and young people in schools across the North West. Our six-week Positive Psychology course helps pupils understand their emotions, recognise their character strengths, build resilience and develop positive coping strategies.

Through our work in schools, we see every day why support cannot begin only when a child reaches crisis point. It is also encouraging that the Government’s new mental health strategy will look beyond clinical services and consider the important role of schools and the voluntary sector.

It’s so heartening to see mental health receiving this level of attention and investment. We hope the next steps continue to place prevention, schools and the needs of children and young people at the forefront.

Photo from the Hummingbird Project launch in Manchester, 2017. Left to right: Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester; Ghazala Baig, CEO of MedEquip4Kids; and Catherine North, Hummingbird Project Development Manager.

05/08/2026

MedEquip4Kids is delighted to have been formally welcomed as a member of Bolton CVS.

Last week, Hummingbird Project Development Manager Catherine North and Hummingbird Project Co-ordinator Sonia Ebenezer-Bamigbayan attended the Bolton VCSE Forum, where our membership certificate was presented by Karen Arkwright, Senior Development Officer at Bolton CVS.

Bolton CVS works alongside voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations across the borough, providing advice, training, funding and volunteering support, as well as opportunities to connect, collaborate and strengthen the sector’s collective voice.

Bolton has a particularly important place in the Hummingbird Project. Around a third of our school delivery takes place in the borough, we work closely with the University of Greater Manchester and both of our project delivery team are Bolton residents.

Catherine, who is also an Ambassador for Bolton, said: “We are delighted to be welcomed as a member of Bolton CVS. Bolton is a hugely important part of the Hummingbird Project, both in terms of the schools and pupils we work with and the strong local connections within our team.

“We look forward to being part of the Bolton CVS community, benefiting from its support and opportunities to connect, while also contributing our own experience and supporting other organisations wherever we can.”

Thank you to Karen and the Bolton CVS team for making us feel so welcome.