Mental Health Week

Good evening, everyone!

Next week is Children's Mental Health Week. It is vital that we all know the importance of keeping ourselves mentally healthy. See below for how we will be marking this important week.

The theme of this year's Children’s Mental Health Week is ‘Growing Together’. Growing together is about growing emotionally and finding ways to help each other grow. Challenges and setbacks can help us to grow and adapt and trying new things can help us to move beyond our comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential. However, emotional growth is often a gradual process that happens over time, and sometimes we might feel a bit ‘stuck’.

Throughout the week, children will take part in mindful activities and learn about how we all continue to grow and develop emotionally over time.

On Friday 11th February, children and staff will have a non-uniform day. We ask for a 50p donation which will help raise money for children's mental health.

Children are encouraged to wear clothes that 'express themselves' - this might be bright colours, clothes which represent their national heritage, clothes that are worn in the job they wish to do or the sport they love.

Children can also wear a scarf to school. The scarf can be one that was bought for them by someone special to them, it could be for their favourite sports team, it might be for the club they play for, or it might just be bright colours and joyful, or just warm and comforting!

The reason we will be wearing our scarves on the Friday is:

SAFETY - some scarves will be warm and comforting, helping to keep someone snug and safe in cold weather!

CARING - some scarves might have been a present from a special person; they'll help make someone feel cared for. Wearing a scarf as part of religious faith can also help someone to feel cared for.

ACHIEVEMENT - some scarves might be part of a club, perhaps a sports team. These are waved when a club achieves (e.g. when a football team scores a goal!) They also show when someone belongs to something.

RESILIENCE - a football team's scarf can also help someone to remember that they can still support a team even if it's not doing well; they can show resilience when bouncing back from defeat or disappointment.

FRIENDSHIP - maybe some scarves were a gift from a friend and this makes them extra special.

Keep an eye out on Dojo for what your child is learning about mental health in class.

For further information on mental health, please see my Dojo post earlier in the week and visit our school website mental health page.

https://www.southwarkprimary.net/safeguarding/mental-health-and-wellbeing/

Have a lovely weekend!

Mr Skirton