PUPILS from Auchinleck are learning how to deal with their mental health through performance art.

Like Flying is the new project being launched by the National Theatre of Scotland to help youngsters understand how they feel and express it.

Students will learn how to perform acrobatics , gymnastics, juggling, acting, and more as part of the innovative.

Aerial Edge, Glasgow’s Circus School, are working on the project as the East Ayrshire-focused creative practitioners and have started working in Auchinleck Academy.

Pupils from S2 and S3 pupils will be trained in aerial and circus performance methods over the next few months, leading up to a performance in a distinct, sited location, to be shared with audiences in June 2019.

The young performers will embody imaginary futures from the air, untangling some of the complex aspects of their present and reframing them as their fictitious pasts, far below them.

It comes after the National Theatre partnered with the Scottish Association for Mental Health to explore ways in which creativity can support mental wellbeing and have a lasting effect on young people’s state of mind.

After the performances, SAMH will deliver a symposium discussion on positive mental health in each school involved in the project, and the young people involved will be given the forum to ‘speak back’ to school management in the pursuit of improving mental health resources in their school and contribute to positive mental health in the school community.

The aim of Like Flying is to create a model that strengthens the resilience of young people and which promotes the efficacy of creative interventions in secondary schools.

The sister project, taking place in Edinburgh, in association with Edinburgh City Council, will also result in a performance in June 2019.

The Scottish Association for Mental Health found that half of mental health problems in adulthood begin before the age of 14.

By the time they’re 16, roughly 3 children in every class will have experienced a mental health problem.

This can leave thousands struggling to get the help they need.

Now projects like this want to combat the communication barriers and help youngsters express how they feeling.