Last week was Children’s Mental Health Week and now more than ever it is important that we are aware of the challenges that our young people are facing surrounding their Mental Health.
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 eighth year, they hope to encourage more people than ever to get involved and spread the word.
For Children’s Mental Health Week 2022 the theme is - Growing Together
Growing Together is about growing emotionally and finding ways to help each other grow. Challenges and setbacks can help us 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’.
For Children’s Mental Health Week 2022, we encouraged our children (and adults) to consider how they have grown and how they can help others to grow. Students have accessed and discussed these resources in Form Time, Circle Time, PSHCE and Assemblies last week to support this important Mental Health Campaign.
Nationally 1 in 6 children and young people have a diagnosable mental health problem, and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement.
As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child’s mental health. Here is a link to some free resources for families on the Children’ Mental Health Awareness Website.
Parents and Carers - Children's Mental Health Week (childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk)
The website Young Minds also has some good advice and strategies for young people and parents.
YoungMinds | Mental Health Charity For Children And Young People | YoungMinds
There is a link to the BBC Bitesize ‘sort-our-life-out challenge’ which some of our older students may like to try. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbq77nb
Our young people have also been taking part in a ‘Kindness Challenge’ and some ‘Wellbeing Tips’ which have lots of advice, tasks and ideas surrounding Mental Health. How many did your family achieve? The focus of Mental Health and these related challenges replaced home learning in all subjects across the school to give our young people time, space and resources to engage with this advice and guidance.
We hope the resources and tasks enabled you and your family to help each other stay happy, safe and well.
We would love to see your acts of kindness, please share any images with our Marketing Lead Mrs Couch at a.couch@webberindependentschool.co.uk These will be used to promote Children’s Mental Health Week across our social media channels.
Ms Chessum
Safeguarding Lead
