‘Know Yourself – Grow Yourself’ is the theme for Children’s Mental Health Week in conjunction with Here4You. This year the week is also supported by The Walt Disney Company, and through the characters of Pixar’s Inside Out and Inside Out 2, the resources encourage children and young people to discover how getting to know who they are can help them build resilience, grow and develop.
1 in 5 children and young people now have a probable mental health condition. By taking part in Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week, we can help us to ensure that the children in our care feel listened to, and know that they’re not alone.
To explore this theme, the children have engaged in a variety of activities.
In Year 6, the children started off with a game all about connecting: Can you find someone who… ? A great way to break the ice to begin discussions.
A PowerPoint presentation helped the class discuss the different aspects of mental health and how we are all unique. This was an individual task; understanding and exploring self-awareness which helps us to embrace what is different about ourselves.
Another activity. ‘Knowing yourself‘ provided a great opportunity to spend time thinking about themselves and what makes them, them.
The children worked in groups to come up with and acrostic poem – KNOW YOURSELF, GROW YOURSELF.
All in all, Year 6 have thoroughly explored the theme. So important as they are navigating upcoming transition.
Year 4 did Zentangles – a calm and mindful type of drawing that lets you clear your mind and relax. There are no wrong ways to make a Zentagle, each one is unique. The Zentangle philosophy is, “anything is possible one stroke at a time.”
Year 2 focussed on peace. This led to moments of silence and reflection and working outside in nature when they could.
As well as this, the class sent a virtual class card to children battling illnesses – reminding them that they are superstars and we are thinking of them, even more-so in this mental health week.
Year 1 discussed what mental health is and what makes us feel special. The class discussed how they can feel many different emotions sometimes and that’s OK. The chikdren drew a self portrait and wrote key words that help make us speil and unique.
Reception class spent some time reading the book ‘Have you filled a bucket today’. The children created their own buckets, and through Circle Time with Dinky, the children thought very hard to answer Dinky’s question, “How will you be a bucket filler?”
They came up with some very kind and thoughtful ideas.
- help people who need help
- be kind to our friends and family
- play nicely and share
- say nice words
- smile
- hug people and our families if they are sad
- I will be a best friend
- I will draw love hearts and give it to my friends
- play with someone when they feel lonely
- we can say to our parents that we love them
- I will love all my friends
During the week, we had the pleasure of hosting a coffee morning for parents with Lewisham Mental Health Support Team (MHST).
The feedback and possible ways forward from the coffee morning were amazing:
- Would love to see MHST in school more often
- Workshop with the children
- Targeted coffee morning – particular sessions for particular behaviours
Look out for the next one – it will be a 9am start!
Although we use this specific week to highlight the importance of good mental health and reminding children of strategies that will support, we do have conversations with our children regularly on the topic of identifying feelings and moods and the importance of their voices in sharing these.
A pupil at school penned these lines. They speak a resounding message that we want to hear reverberating through our school.
