According to Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity that provides counselling and mental health support in UK schools, around three children in every primary school class have a mental health problem, and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement.
Place2Be launched the first ever Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015 to shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health. Now in its seventh year, they hope to encourage more people than ever to get involved and spread the word.
This year’s theme is ‘Express Yourself’ and is about helping children to find ways to share their feelings, thoughts, or ideas through creativity. This could be through prayer, art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make them feel good. This is not about being the best at something or putting on a performance for others. It is about helping children to find a way to show who they are, and how they see the world, that can help them feel good about themselves.
At St. Vincent’s we will be expressing ourselves in lots of different ways this week. Yesterday we celebrated whole school assembly and we have started the week with drama workshops for every class. We know how our creative our pupils are and we look forward to seeing some of the activities you complete during Wellbeing Wednesday tomorrow afternoon-a screen free opportunity to express yourself!
The Ten Ten film challenges you to think of more creative challenges. If you think of some please write them in the comments below and we might use them for our next Wellbeing Wednesday.