Children’s Mental Health Week 5th – 11th February 2024
We have certainly embraced and celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week 2024 at Sherborne House School!
The calendar year started off with us being awarded the prestigious AcSEED award for our approach and school ethos towards wellbeing and mental health; which we are thrilled to receive. Please read our recent blog for further information.
We are driven to help children understand their emotions and to understand that minds need to be healthy as well as bodies. As a school, each year we support Place2be’s Children’s Mental Health Week and this year has been no exception. The theme this year is ‘My Voice Matters’, helping children understand that their voices do matter and should be heard and taken into account.
Our special week actually started last week, with a special assembly dedicated to Children’s Mental health Week, reminding children that they are all unique and special and every single person has the right to feel safe and speak up.
During my dedicated PSHE & Relationship lessons, each year group has enjoyed exploring a different aspect of mental health. Here is a snapshot of what our children learned: our Reception children practised mindful breathing with a cuddly toy; in Year One we talked about having star qualities and how it can help us feel happy when we think about our own star qualities; in Year Two we focussed on ways the children can ‘share their voices’ and express themselves so that other people listen; in Year Three the children considered how they could make their voices heard and articulated the events they are looking forward to in their lives this week; in Year Four we discussed questions such as,’ What does it mean to have a voice?’ and ‘How can we celebrate ourselves and achievements?’ and Year Six designed their own Mental Health ‘Action Plan’ and really enjoyed making their ‘mental health’ chatter boxes too!
Each class have watched and listened to the Master Owl Mindfulness story, written and read by Rob Homes. This allowed them further opportunities to think about and discuss their mental health and wellbeing. Rob Holmes also kindly provided every child with their own Master Owl Mindfulness bookmark which we hope they will use and enjoy.
On Thursday, our Wellbeing Ambassadors, Mrs Carter and I were delighted to take part in a special Zoom call with Rob Holmes from the Master Owl Mindfulness stories for schools. The children asked him lots of questions about mindfulness and learnt a lot!
The learning did not stop there since Friday was ‘Express Yourself Day!’ Children (and staff) were invited to wear clothing of their choice to express themselves. Outfits varied from bright, vibrant and colourful clothes, face paints, wacky hair, hilarious wigs and even pyjamas. The cheerful outfits the children wore certainly lifted everyone’s spirits! We all looked very different from each other and that was ok because we celebrated the fact that we are all special and unique and that it is fine to express ourselves in our individual ways.
Our special week was concluded on Friday during our Golden Thread afternoon with a focus on Children’s Mental Health and reinforcing the message that every child has the right to express their views and feelings and to have them taken seriously.
If you would like to understand more about children’s mental health then we would like to invite you to a – parents only – workshop with Dr Hoyos (Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist ) at 6pm on Tuesday 5th March who will be talking about key mental health issues affecting children today. Please sign up via our website: Guest Speaker Events.
You may also find these healthy minds ‘top tips’ for families information useful too:
https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/media/vxgdpw3x/cmhw-24-top-tips-for-families.pdf
Mrs Holmes
PSHE Lead
