Children's Mental Health Week is a mental health awareness week that empowers, equips and gives a voice to all children and young people in the UK.  This year’s theme is ‘My Voice Matters’ and is about giving children and young people the tools they need to express themselves.  If they are encouraged to talk more about how they are feeling this can help to prevent worries from escalating and reduce loneliness as they may find that others are also experiencing the same emotions too.

We started the week with a whole school assembly to introduce the theme and throughout the following days there were many opportunities for discussions around positive self-worth.  The buzz around the building was alive with a range of learning opportunities, across the curriculum, to develop the confidence of our young community to care for their own well-being.

To coincide with our celebrations of Children’s Mental Health Week, Mrs Kaal, Mrs Turner, Mrs Perry and Mrs Jordan came together to create a Reset Basket for each class.

The thinking behind the baskets is that they would contain a variety of items to support with self -regulation for pupils who just need a minute to themselves to control their behaviour, manage stress, deal with conflict and achieve their goals.  
The teachers introduced them to their classes this week and discussed the different elements, affording each pupil the opportunity to handle each one and understand the benefit of them to their own well-being.  Every item has a self-regulation mechanism to manage thoughts and the creators recognised that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ so a range of items were placed inside to appeal to a wider audience and these also differed according to year groups.

Tools included a worry monster to externalise worries, worry stones with positive affirmations to calm the mind, emotion puppets as visuals aids to express feelings, colouring, mindfulness breathing tracing and much more.

The baskets were very well received by staff and pupils and have been placed in classrooms for our pupils to access whenever they need to.

Whilst shopping at the weekend with her mum, Elsie Howells, one of our year 4 pupils, witnessed a homeless man sleeping in the trolley park in Sainsbury’s car park.  She suggested to her mum that they should find him some food and something warm to wear, it was a particularly cold day.  So they went to the local charity shop, purchased a jumper and then to the supermarket to buy a drink, some snacks and food.  When they returned with the items the man was very grateful.

On the Sunday evening, whilst it was pouring with rain, Elsie mentioned to her mum something she had seen on the TV where you can report someone sleeping rough and an outreach team will try and locate them.  They filled out an application form that night and hope to hear that the team have been successful in find finding him.

In addition to this marvellous act of kindness, Elsie and her mum made up Christmas bags filled with essential such as hand warmers, gloves and chocolates and handed them out to those in need in London.

Well done Elsie, you are a credit to yourself, your family and your school.  So proud of you 👏 👏

On Wednesday 17th January, the O2 Arena was transformed into a majestic mix of pupils, staff, parents and performers. 
After weeks of rehearsals, which had commenced back in September, we were ready to become part of an enormous ensemble of 7500 pupils.  
From start to finish it was an incredible experience and exceeded all our expectations. The power of music fostering unity and passion was just marvellous and we were blown away by the talented performers on stage, particularly the 13 year old drummer Nandi Bushell, who wowed us with her outstanding skills! 
We are already looking forward to signing up for next year. 🎶

We were very excited to welcome Natalie Shay to KS2 today.  A critically acclaimed multi award winning musician, Natalie writes relatable lyrics and her latest single, The Edge, is about the painful breakdown of her relationship with her friend.  After performing a couple of her tracks, Natalie delivered a powerful PSHCE message to empower our pupils to make healthy life choices, recognising when to reach out and who to talk to.  Afterwards there was a collective Q and A session followed by the opportunity for every child to speak to Natalie first hand and receive a signed flyer.  The children loved speaking with her and asked searching questions about well-being and self care.  By the end of the session our spirits were definitely lifted and there was a very positive buzz in the air. 🎶🎵🎤

Our world has seen conflict and unrest throughout the past year and sometimes the news can fill us with unhappiness and dread.  Spreading peace is important for us to be good citizens and small acts of kindness can spread peace in our communities and homes, making a real difference.

We joined with lots of schools across the UK to create peace chain links to travel a distance equivalent to the distance from John O’Groats to Land’s End.  Our wonderful well-being ambassadors delivered workshops across every class in school and to parents, encouraging conversations around what peace could look like and creating illustrations and quotes to promote the message.  
Pupils, staff and parents all came together and collectively created a chain which measured 12.7 metres, consisting of inspiring and empowering messages.  This was added to the results of all the other schools who participated, a marvellous show of strength at a time when we need it most.

What a marvellous day we have had! A professional recording artist came into school today and the whole school collectively, in year groups, key stage groups and the Young Voices choir have sung their hearts out to raise money for the school.  Proceeds from the sale of CD’s will be used to support the positive well-being of the staff and children by enhancing our outdoor areas.  
Feedback from the experience was that both staff and children, ‘absolutely loved it.’  
‘I felt so happy to be part of something for the whole school.’

’Singing relaxes me and makes me feel more confident.’

’I wish we could it all over again!’

This week has been Children's Mental Health Week with the theme of 'Let's Connect.'  Across the school, pupils have been engaging in a range of activities to encourage community spirit, higher self-esteem and empathy.  They have looked at different ways in which they are connected to their classmates and explored how they can come together to support each other.  What a marvellous way to end the half term! 

The Young Voices concerts are the largest children’s choir concerts in the world.

We have been rehearsing weekly at school, since the middle of September, and self-confidence, self-belief and self-motivation skills have flourished.  Every week, without fail, the 60 strong choir have turned up to practice in their lunchtime, which is testament to their commitment.  Being part of a community and being able to communicate through music has been an invaluable experience for everyone involved.

On the 16th January our pupils performed alongside around 7500 other children, as a single choir, to an audience of family and friends at the O2 Arena.  The atmosphere was sensational and we all had a marvellous time! We are incredibly proud of all our singers Can’t wait to register for next years event 🎤🎶

Children's Mental Health Week 7-11th February 2022

Wellbeing Week - October 2021

#HelloYellow World Mental Health Day 2020

On Friday 9th October we celebrated World Mental Health day in style!  In support of the Young Minds Charity, the Uk’s leading charity fighting for children’s and young people’s mental health, each child and adult in the school came in dressed in as much yellow as they could possibly lay their hands on!  The energy around the school was electric and, despite the children all being in separate bubbles, there was a real sense of community spirit that ran through the school.

Each teacher had planned a range of activities, pitched at different levels and learning styles, to encourage their youngsters to consider the importance of keeping their minds healthy, as well as their bodies.

In Nursery the children made the ‘longest paper chain’ and were proud of their collective piece.  They were able to recognise the importance of working together and showing support to everyone.  In Reception and KS1 there were Worry Monsters created to ‘feed’ any worries to for the monster to gobble up and take away.  A Speed friend activity gave the children the opportunity to connect and find out something new about each other and Superhero’s were designed with special powers of kindness, friendship and listening skills etc.

The KS2 children were also involved in a variety of tasks which considered a deeper thinking of positive mental health and how to recognise emotions, whilst being able to name them and ask for help.  Mindfulness colouring was undertaken whilst listening to meditation music to support relaxation and focus, whilst worry dolls were constructed tools for ‘taking on’ worries and removing them from the child.  Additionally children built a well-being tree from their positivity leaves and the Year 6 children drew pictures to convey their feelings and emotions through artwork inspired by Kandinsky.

However, without doubt, the most uplifting experience of the day was when the whole school came together, in their individual bubbles, for the first time since lockdown on the 23rd March.  Despite virtual weekly singing assemblies being posted it was the first opportunity for all the children to sing with each other in school.  Around the school field the children stood, socially distanced in their groups, to sing songs about feeling good.  They sang ‘Power in Me’ with actions, a song which promoted the very essence of the day, along with Top of the World, Mama Mia and Don’t Stop me Now!  The atmosphere was marvellous as was the chemistry in the air as everyone enjoyed taking part.  The sun came out and it was a most uplifting experience, one that everyone will remember.

Throughout this wide range of activities each child was able to learn about the power of a positive mind-set but more importantly to understand that it is okay to not be okay and where to go and what to do if they need support. The school raised £220.00 for the Healthy Young Minds Charity.