What an incredible ride it has been thus far.

7th November 2023 marks 10 years of INSIDE OUT. As part of our 10th Anniversary celebrations, Stephanie Weissman, our Founder and CEO, revisits some of the highlights from our 10-year history, explores what has changed (and what hasn’t) and looks to the future.

The initial spark for the charity came when I became convinced, from personal experience, of a well-proven concept - happiness fuels success, not the other way around. 

I started with a purpose to inspire primary school children to gain a ‘toolkit’ of life skills to feel better, learn better and flourish. 

Our first day turned into a Magical Day Out of mindfulness, nature and horses at Checkendon Equestrian Centre for 10 children based on 5 Keys to Happiness. 

Children said, “It was the best day I ever had.” I knew we were on to something. 

We went on to create a Toolbox for schools, Workshops for teachers, and became a registered charity. 

We built a tribe of partner schools in Berkshire and Oxfordshire and developed an award to recognise exemplary wellbeing excellence. 

Magical Days Out were now in demand. The upgrade of our physical Toolbox to a range of digital resources had begun. 

Then the pandemic hit. 

We had to abruptly halt our Magical Days Out and pivot. Free, weekly Wellbeing Guides full of simple, fun wellbeing boosts were created and used at home and in school to support children, some of whom were experiencing trauma. 

The overwhelmingly positive response to the Guides galvanised us to accelerate the completion of a free, digitised Activity Library and Wellbeing Programme. Schools now use these to work towards our INSIDE OUT Award, which helps them build a whole-school culture to wellbeing. 

Exactly 10 years after it all began, Thameside Primary School, our first partner school and INSIDE OUT Award recipient, returned for a special celebratory Magical Day Out at Checkendon Equestrian Centre for 10 of their children. We are very happy to have children ‘back in the saddle again.’ 

We are marking our 10-Year Anniversary with a new Wellbeing Ambassadors pilot this year, putting children at the centre of leading peer-to-peer support and promoting conversations about mental health and positive wellbeing.

Whilst our impact has grown over 10 years – we have now supported over 5,000 children across 20 schools – our underlying belief that happy children learn better has never changed. We have stayed true to our roots. We continue to do all we can to make it easy for busy teachers to promote positive mental wellbeing through our 5 Keys to Happiness evidence-based framework. We continue to favour building close, meaningful and long-term relationships with our partner schools, rather than quick-fix solutions. 

We are extremely proud to reach this milestone. That we are in this position is testament to the tremendous dedication of our team and trustees and the faith that an increasing number of people, schools and funders show in us. It is a trust that we have worked hard to establish and one that we know we must work even harder every day not to lose.

The best predictor of an adult’s life satisfaction is their emotional health as a child. We look to the future with an unwavering commitment to inspire children to develop ways to look after their mental wellbeing so they have the best chance to reach their full potential.