The Hummingbird Project

The Hummingbird Project A six-week Positive Psychology course for North West schools to improve mental health. Delivered by children's health charity MedEquip4Kids.

Delivered by children's charity MedEquip4Kids in partnership with the Universities of Bolton and Chester and the Open University. A free 6-week Positive Psychology course for North West schools to improve young people's mental health.

Congratulations to Dr Ian Platt!We are absolutely delighted to share that our Hummingbird Project Manager, Ian Platt, ha...
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.

We'd like to say a huge thank you to the Focus Foundation for donating an incredibly generous £5,000 to provide ten Humm...
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.

We were really pleased to see Andy Burnham’s post today about significant new support and funding for mental health, wit...
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.

MedEquip4Kids is delighted to have been formally welcomed as a member of Bolton CVS.Last week, Hummingbird Project Devel...
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.

Now term has finished, we're going through the feedback that pupils and teachers have kindly provided on the Hummingbird...
29/07/2026

Now term has finished, we're going through the feedback that pupils and teachers have kindly provided on the Hummingbird Project. We have some beautiful and colourful posters by pupils that we'll be sharing on here and in our Impact Report in September. We've also had some fantastic feedback from teachers. Around 98% of primary school teachers say they believe the project has had a positive impact on their pupils' mental health.

Below is an example of teacher feedback from Lever Edge Primary School in Bolton, which our facilitator Abieyuwa Sonia has visited several times over the past year.

🏫 School: Lever Edge Primary Academy
📚Year Group: 4

❓In what ways do you think the Hummingbird Project has helped your pupils?

➡️Engaging, fun sessions with real life situations and messages. Sonia has been a ray of sunshine every week!

❓What do you think your pupils have learned from the project?

➡️Examples of mindfulness to apply themselves. Team building skills. Coping strategies. Breathing techniques. Places signposted for any future occasions / problems.

❓Do you feel the project has improved pupils’ mental health?

➡️Yes. Lots of strategies given. The children really enjoyed, and looked forward to every session. The themes for each session are clearly designed to improve mental health.

❓What tools or skills do you think your students have learned from the project to improve their resilience?

➡️Life skills to develop resilience and coping strategies for different situations.

We're delighted to share our new Hummingbird Project Corporate Partnership Prospectus. Since 2017 the Hummingbird team h...
23/07/2026

We're delighted to share our new Hummingbird Project Corporate Partnership Prospectus.

Since 2017 the Hummingbird team has reached more than 11,000 children and young people in schools across the North West, introducing them to Positive Psychology concepts such as mindfulness, resilience, gratitude, kindness and hope. Our university-backed evaluation is showing measurable improvements in wellbeing and hope, and reductions in signs of anxiety and depression.

We're now looking to build partnerships with local businesses that want to make a meaningful difference to children's mental health while demonstrating their social impact. Every partnership will help to us keep the programme free for schools.

If you work for or know of a business that is passionate about supporting young people's mental health, education or local communities, we'd be so grateful if you could request a copy of this prospectus to share, or introduce us to the right person. Thank you.

As the school year draws to a close, we'repleased to share that the Hummingbird delivery team has reached a record 2,795...
21/07/2026

As the school year draws to a close, we'repleased to share that the Hummingbird delivery team has reached a record 2,795 pupils in the North West this year, and over 11,000 pupils in total since the project began. Feedback continues to be excellent, with 98% of primary school teachers reporting that their pupils' mental health has improved following the course.

Over the summer break we'll be busy revising the course content based on pupil feedback, and evaluating our questionnaire results from the past year. We will publish our full impact report later in the autumn. Until then, thank you all so much for your continued support of the project. We really do appreciate you.

The poster below is by a pupil at Lostock Primary School. They report that:

"Hummingbird Project helps you to feel good about your future and what kind of person you are. Hummingbird Project helps me to think about your strengths and what makes you special. The Hummingbird Project helps me to relax and think about the important things."

You may remember in January this year, we held a consultation workshop at the University of Greater Manchester for SENCO...
20/07/2026

You may remember in January this year, we held a consultation workshop at the University of Greater Manchester for SENCOs and other teaching staff from across the North West, to begin co-designing a version of the Hummingbird Project adapted for learners with special educational needs (SEN).

We received so many fantastic suggestions from staff who work with SEN pupils, who emphasised that wellbeing education must be flexible, sensory-friendly, visual, and built around children’s individual communication styles.

In April, Hummingbird Project Co-ordinator Sonia Ebenezer-Bamigbayan (pictured below at the SENCO event) had the chance to try out some of these ideas at Maple Grove School in Chester, a school for pupils aged 5-18 with autism and other additional needs. Drawing directly on the ideas shared by SENCOs, Sonia adapted her activities to meet pupils’ sensory and communication needs.

For example, one of the Hummingbird multisensory sessions involves smelling different scents in jars and guessing what they are, which can be fun, but may also be over-stimulating for some pupils with additional needs. Sonia offered alternative activities such as listening to seashells or using tactile sensory materials.

Staff at Maple Grove School told us: "The Hummingbird Project has helped our pupils to talk about feelings, and their strengths, with an unfamiliar adult. They have learned to talk about and embrace their strengths. They know who to reach out to if they are not having the best day. Reflecting on how to be happy will help them when they are struggling with their mental health."

We would like to say a special thank you to the Sir Halley Stewart Trust for funding our research into the mental health education needs of SEN pupils.

We're delighted to say that we have received a £15,000 grant from the Cheshire Community Foundation to support the Hummi...
09/07/2026

We're delighted to say that we have received a £15,000 grant from the Cheshire Community Foundation to support the Hummingbird Project in Warrington schools.

This funding will help us reach around 400 pupils in areas of higher deprivation, giving young people the chance to learn evidence-based ways to look after their emotional wellbeing through our six-week Positive Psychology course.

Cheshire Community Foundation were one of our initial funders and helped us establish the Hummingbird Project in Cheshire between 2018 and 2021, so it’s lovely to have their support again as we continue developing this work.

A huge thank you to for believing in the project and helping us create more opportunities for children and young people in Warrington.

Following our recent post about the rise in children being referred to mental health services, we wanted to share someth...
02/07/2026

Following our recent post about the rise in children being referred to mental health services, we wanted to share something that shows why early wellbeing education matters so much.

The Hummingbird Project was designed as a multi-component intervention, because no single wellbeing strategy will work for everyone. By introducing pupils to a range of tools, we give each child a better chance of finding something that feels useful to them.

The impact of these different components is beautifully illustrated in the poster below, created by one of the pupils who took part in the Hummingbird Project. Reflecting on what they had learned each week, the pupil wrote:

“On week 1, we learned about happiness and how to make us feel happy and doing things that we LOVE.”

“On week 2, we learned how to be kind and respectful. This helps us to be calm and happy and to make other people, your friends/family SMILE.”

“On week 3, we learned to slow down. We also used our senses to see what we can hear, touch, taste, see and smell. This makes us calm and RELAX.”

“On week 4, we discussed on what makes us strong. When we think of it, we did think of talents and SKILLS.”

“On week 5, we had a very fun activity with hula hoops. This was all about teamwork and being calm all the way through it!”

“On week 6, we learned about feeling good about your future. Also about feeling calm and thinking about what you want to be in your future LIFE!”

The poster highlights the value of mindfulness, especially for children experiencing anxiety. The ability to pause, notice the present moment and feel calmer is such an important skill. It does not replace specialist mental health support where that is needed, but it can give children practical tools they can use before worries escalate.

At a time when so many children are struggling with anxiety and other mental health conditions, pupils need support that helps them understand their emotions, recognise their strengths, and build hope for the future.

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