Activities for Children's Mental Health Week 2024

What is Children's Mental Health Week?

Place2Be

Children's Mental Health Week is run by children's mental health charity Place2Be, who launched the first ever Children’s Mental Health week in 2015 to shine a spotlight on the importance of children's 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. The theme this year is My Voice Matters and runs from 5th-11th February. Free primary and secondary resources are now available from Place2Be, including assembly guides, slides, group activities for schools to use to empower children and young people.

Beyond

Beyond are a youth mental charity that exists to improve young people’s mental health in the UK. They have a wealth of resources on their website and run the UK’s only mental health festival for schools and colleges on 8th February that is free for schools to sign up to. Beyond is powered by an impassioned youth board that is determined to instill new attitudes and are the heart and soul of the charity.

How can I teach about looking after mental health in the classroom?

Purple Mash

There are a range of dedicated resources within Purple Mash that focus on Mental Health and Wellbeing, alongside the creative tools that children can use during the week that cover the theme My Voice Matters. From writing to art to music, the only limit is their own imagination. Subscribers can access these resources within our Children’s Mental Health week folder.

We have put together a free resource pack for the week, which features Digital Wellbeing resources from Purple Mash, as well as resources from two of our other platforms Striver and Dot Com, and a pack for parents on discussing Mental Health and wellbeing with their children.

Striver

Striver is our PE and wellbeing platform created with a sole purpose: to improve primary aged pupils' long-term physical and mental wellbeing. We do that by ensuring children of all abilities feel motivated and engaged, and teachers of all experience levels feel confident and in control. It includes 6 wellbeing units for each year group (3 units for reception) alongside over 400 lessons to support the teaching of PE.

Dot Com Digital

Dot Com Digital supports children’s personal, social and emotional development and helps to provide a safe space for them to develop their skills. Through Dot Com Digital, children will be given the knowledge and empowerment to make their own decisions regarding their wellbeing, health and relationships. It offers comprehensive coverage of the RSE framework 2020 and through Dot’s real-life stories, children can learn about risks they might come across in life and how they can deal with them in a safe way.

We hope that you find these resources useful in helping your pupils to share their voice. If you use any of the resources mentioned we would love to hear from you on either our Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.