AFTER penning her first book, Flamingo Flockdown, which discusses children's mental health during lockdown, Carlisle author Rebecca Tyson has been visiting schools to discuss the ideas contained within it.

Flamingo Flockdown is about a group of flamingo friends who go through their own lockdown.

They work through their worries, share their feelings and at the end see the very best in each other... which helps the whole flamingo flock community.

This week is children’s mental health week, and Rebecca said she has used the story again to highlight the importance of healthy relationships and communications with each other at Norman Steet Primary School.

The theme for this year’s mental health is 'Let’s Connect' so Rebecca has been using aspects of her story to connect the whole school together.

Hearts are a big feature throughout the book so every child in school has been making a heart designed specifically for their friend.

They face each other and have a little chat about their likes, interests, and skills.

Rebecca said: "It’s been a great connection activity and I’ve loved hearing them talk about what they’re good at and giving each other compliments which is what my flamingo friends in the story also do.

"The books aims to encourage conversations about how we’re feeling and how it’s ok to all have different feelings.

"The characters are all unique and it’s lovely that children recognise that in themselves."

Rebecca performed a whole school assembly this week to introduce the activity and has spent the rest of this week in and out of classes helping the children to make their hearts.

A few hearts will also be made for the local community which Norman Street School has connections with, such as St Aidans Church, Henry Lonsdale Residential Home and the corner shop.

Rebecca has been doing a book tour over the last nine months but this is the first time she has been able to link it properly with children’s mental health.