Children's Mental Health Week - 7-13 February 2022

While this blog and many of the websites and organisations mentioned are very UK focussed we have decided to share it because we at 2Simple South Africa are passionate about Children's Mental health and we believe it should be a focus in all schools.

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 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 Growing Together, and free primary and secondary resources are now available from Place2Be, including assembly guides, slides, group activities, fundraising ideas and more to help schools and youth groups explore what it means to Grow 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’. (Place2Be)

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 ‘Growing Together’. From writing to art to music, the only limit is their own imagination.

Learners can create a poster sharing information about who people can talk to if they are worried or need support or they can list 5 things that make them feel happy and able to express themselves.

Working with Nina Jackson and Kelly Hanaghan, we have put together an informative guide for parents. Let’s Talk About Mental Health’ – A Parent’s Toolkit for Wellbeing. Wellbeing is important. It’s about feeling good both physically and emotionally. It marries the head and the heart together to create a sense of fulfilment. However, the world of mental health and wellbeing does not have to be considered a place of worry for parents; in fact, it can be embraced as a tool for building a better future for us all with healthy conversations that nurture emotional growth and positive relationships.

We have put together this informative guide to help support you with healthy conversations about mental health and wellbeing with your child. This will enable them to flourish in an ever-changing world, armed with the tools for emotional understanding and the resilience to regulate their thoughts and feelings. In the toolkit, you will find tips and advice for parents of children aged 5 to 7 and for those of children aged 7 to 11, providing you with everything you need to start and build on conversations about mental health and wellbeing.

Striver

Striver is our PE and wellbeing platform which is packed with lesson plans and resources. As well as a full scheme of work for PE there are dedicated wellbeing units for each year group. You don’t need any specialist training to deliver impactful wellbeing sessions with Striver, simply follow our step-by-step lesson plans covering topics such as yoga, mindfulness and nutrition.

Mindfulness helps us with our mental wellbeing. It can support us as human beings to foster more healthy living habits and understand our unique emotional and physical needs. Practising mindfulness can give more insight into emotions, boost attention and concentration, and improve relationships with self and others in the home and at school. We have put together a pack to introduce mindfulness to your children as well as 6 Mindfulness Pocket Postcards.

These ‘Pocket Postcards’ are for anyone: for school; for home; or for self. Created for different settings to be able to reach, read, use, and action, they are purposeful, practical, and easy to use for a variety of ages and environments, perfect to use during Children’s Mental Health Week.

You can download the pack here, or start a 14-day trial to access the full range of Striver wellbeing units.

Now and Beyond Festival

Now and Beyond is the UK’s only national mental health festival for educational settings.
Held on 9th February 2022, parents, teachers and students alike will be able to access free mental health resources and support via bespoke online workshops for their school by mental health and wellbeing experts, lesson materials and live streamed panels with celebrity guests.

It’s hosted by youth mental health charity Beyond, founded by Jonny Benjamin MBE. Their first festival was in February 2021 and it was a massive success reaching over half a million students, teachers and parents! This year they want it to be even bigger and better than the last.

If you work in a school, please register here to take part.

Dot Com Digital

The Dot Com Digital programme, aimed at children aged 5-11, adopts a values-based approach that empowers children to develop confidence and make safe choices. It includes overviews, videos, lesson plans and online and paper-based activities.

Created by Sharon Doughty, a former Sky News presenter, Dot Com Digital is an enhanced digital version of the Dot Com safeguarding programme which has been developed by children and safeguarding leads with input from Essex Police, the National Police Chief Council and Internet Intelligence & Investigations.

We have put together a sample pack of lesson plans that you can download that gives you an overview of the progamme that houses over 24 themes.

We hope that you find these resources useful in helping your pupils to grow together. If you use any of the resources mentioned we would love to hear from you on either our Twitter or Facebook pages #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek.