Professor Steve Peters talks chimp management as children learn about emotions at a Derby school

Youngsters at schools from across Derbyshire have been learning more about their inner chimp as a professor specialising in the human brain put on a very special show.

Professor Steve Peters, author of the UK’s bestselling self-help book The Chimp Paradox, paid a visit to Hardwick Primary School, in Dover Street, to put on a unique pantomime for the children to help them understand more about their emotions.

With the help of students from the Derby Cathedral School, the show focused on the three children struggling with anger, anxiety and feeling grumpy. Taking on the character of Professor Lightbulb, Professor Peters explained two parts of the brain – the human side and the emotional side which is the chimp.

The children went into a machine and came out with their emotional chimp chained to them – to the delight of the audience.

The Professor, who has sold more than a million copies of his book, said: “The show looks at the resilience in children and we are getting them involved in a way that they can relate to. We are acting it out in a fun way but it has a serious underpinning theme.

“We repeat the principles of chimp management to help the children to understand it. I’m pleased with how it went and the children were great. They really engaged and I think that now they can recognise their own chimps.”

Year 5 pupil Karlis Zvans said: “It was good and I’ve learned that you have to control your emotions. I understand it a bit more now.”

Harwick Primary School and Derby Cathedral School were joined by pupils from Firs Primary School, Bishop Lonsdale, Arboretum Primary School and St James’ CE Junior School, which are all part of the Derby Diocesan Academy Trust.

Ennis McMahon, a Year 9 pupil at the Derby Cathedral School, was one of the performers in the show and he told how they had two rehearsals and improvised the majority of it to fit the story they were given.

He said: “I think it went surprisingly well. Improv skills definitely came in handy and the help of the more grown up members of the group. We wouldn’t have been able to do that without them. It definitely helps to be creative.”

Evelyn White, who is also in Year 9, said: “I was nervous at the start but I calmed down once it had got going.”

Head of school Rani Sandhu said: “Here at Hardwick Primary School, it is not just about passing exams. We want our children to have an all-round education which will help them throughout their life.

“Understanding their emotions and why they feel the way they do is part of that.

“I thought the show was brilliant. It’s a very complex concept but they explained it in such a simple way that the children could understand, with the visuals to support that.

“They now know that when they are emotional it’s the chimp showing. They got the message across that they have got to manage that chimp and they can see it in other people too.”

Professor Peters is a medical doctor specialising in mental health and the functioning of the human mind.

His roles had included clinical director of Mental Health Services within the NHS, consultant forensic psychiatrist and undergraduate dean at Sheffield Medical School. He has spent 20 years as an examination panel member at the Royal College of Psychiatry and has been an expert advisor to World Anti-doping Agency.

As an author he has written four books including the bestselling self-help book of all time in the UK, The Chimp Paradox, which has sold over a million copies - as per Nielsen TCM Chart 2020.