Case study · Plymouth Public Schools
One film program per grade, across two middle schools.
Plymouth Public Schools licensed Angst, LIKE and The Upstanders for the year and gave each middle-school grade its own program, as Tier 1 mental health education for every student.
Film programsAngstLIKEThe Upstanders
85%
of the district’s Angst viewers said mental health is somewhat to extremely important for their school to address.
A survey of opinion, not a measured outcome: it records what viewers said about the topic. The district has 7,000 students across 13 schools.
At a glance
- One film program per grade
- LIKE in 6th, Angst in 7th, The Upstanders in 8th
- District
- 7,000 students, 13 schools, Pre-K to 12
- License
- Year-long access to all three programs
- How it began
- An Angst screening about five years ago
Background
About five years ago, Kelly Macomber, Plymouth Public Schools’ Family & Community Engagement Specialist, went to an Angst screening in Duxbury, MA.
Plymouth Public Schools (opens in a new tab) has 7,000 students across 13 schools, Pre-K to 12, and places a high priority on youth mental wellness. The district had seen mental well-being, bullying and social media use affect student learning and classroom culture firsthand.
Opportunity
The district needed more Tier 1 support: the kind that builds social, emotional and behavioral skills and well-being in every student, whether or not they are at risk. Strong Tier 1 also takes pressure off Tier 2 and Tier 3, so the students who need that extra help can reach it. It covers school climate and staff well-being too.
Inside the middle schools, students and teachers were asking for help with bullying behavior and with phone use, in and outside the classroom — on top of an already heavy workload. Mental well-being was affecting learning, so time was of the essence.
That is why a turn-key program the district could customize fit its needs.
Kelly Macomber recalls: As soon as I saw the film, I knew our schools could benefit greatly from this.
What worked
Plymouth ran the three film programs across both middle schools as a preventative approach: promoting healthy habits and teaching about mental health before a student is in trouble.
Before the rollout, faculty from both schools met and assigned each grade one program. Sixth grade took LIKE, since most students have a phone by then; seventh grade took Angst; eighth grade took The Upstanders. That year’s eighth graders were the first to have worked through all three.
A set curriculum that staff knew and were comfortable with meant they could build on the same materials year after year. With everything else teachers already carry, the built-out lesson plans were what made the extra conversations about mental health possible. Administrators valued that the Toolkit is a clear-cut intervention with tangible activities and a structure they can implement thoughtfully.
Before any film program reached a student, the district took the Implementation Training run by our Engagement Team. It is a short tour of the Toolkit, then mostly time spent choosing the resources that fit the community — and asking how other schools have used the programs.
The training is clear that teachers facilitate: they are not expected to be experts in anxiety, bullying or social media, and it points them to the Toolkit resources that support that role. We also encourage naming points of contact for extra support.
Kelly Macomber followed up with the staff who took the training: After the implementation training, teachers were asked to come up with one lesson using the chapter clips & discussions, classroom activities, and our lesson planning template. When following up, most teachers ended up planning out two, or three. I could see they saw value in the content within the CCT.
What changed
A Tier 1 resource the district could repeat.
Plymouth Public Schools came away with a trusted, tested and customized Tier 1 mental health resource aligned with SEL core competencies across its middle schools — one it could replicate in other schools in the district.
Every middle schooler in the district, and their family, had access to resources that support their mental wellness.
And when the district was asked the question every school gets — what are schools doing for mental health? — Kelly could point to the film programs as a “clear-cut Tier 1 Intervention that allows us to supplement an already existing curriculum.”
How it ran
What a year looked like at Plymouth.
Six steps, in the order the schools took them. The license ran all year, and so did the program.
Before the rollout
One film program per grade
Faculty from both middle schools met before the rollout and assigned LIKE to 6th grade, Angst to 7th and The Upstanders to 8th.
Before the first film program
Implementation training
Our Engagement Team walked staff through the Toolkit, then helped them pick the resources that fit their community.
The start of the program
A grade-wide viewing
Each grade was introduced to its film together, as a whole grade.
Then
Classroom discussion
Then discussion in class, to go deeper with the classmates and teachers students already trust.
Around the screenings
An email to parents
The principal emailed families about the screenings and invited them into the Toolkit — one link, shared across the whole community.
The rest of the year
Chapter clips all year
Through the rest of the year, classes took a Chapter Clip and Discussion (one to five minutes) or an SEL Activity.
Take a 20 min tour
A short walk-through on a call, with time for your questions.