I am delighted to tell you about the launch of a mental health and wellbeing project for our school community.

What is Mental Wellbeing?

It is how we are feeling and coping with the things we face in everyday life. Just like our physical health, mostly it is good and sometimes not so good and that this is completely normal. You could think of it as your mental fitness.

I am sure you will agree as we all continue to recover from the impact of the COVID pandemic, that there has never been a more important time to speak openly about mental health and wellbeing with children and young people and to encourage them to talk about their feelings with family, friends, and trusted adults.

Research tells us that building the following proven five simple things into our everyday lives can make a really positive difference to the mental health and wellbeing of both children and adults alike and help to build resilience and confidence.

1: Talk and listen – CONNECT

2: Be ACTIVE

3: Remember to TAKE NOTICE

4L Keep LEARNING Every Day

5: Acts of Kindness – GIVE to others

As part of our commitment to the wellbeing of our children, staff, and wider school community, I am proud to advise you that we will be launching the 5 Ways To Wellbeing project in our school with effect from 26 September 2022.

We will be sharing information with the children about the 5 Ways To Wellbeing through assembly and then exploring how we can put them into practice everyday both in school and at home. The focus of the project will be to highlight to the children how the 5 Ways To Wellbeing can easily form part of their daily lives and link to their everyday experiences and to know that by doing these 5 things every day, they are taking good care of their mental health.    

You may already have heard of the 5 Ways To Wellbeing as this freely available NHS guidance has become more widely used since the start of the pandemic. One of our key aims will be to provide an opportunity for our parents and carers to find out more about the project and to become more involved. In the meantime, the 5 Ways To Wellbeing guidance is available for parents on the NHS website at www.nhs.uk. You can also find further information about how to support your child's wellbeing and mental health at www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/. These links can also be found on the Mental Health & Wellbeing page of the school website - please click HERE to go directly to it. Your child also has access to Zumos, an app that directly links to child wellbeing and we will be posting other useful links to 5 Ways To Wellbeing over the coming weeks.

We are feeling incredibly positive about promoting the 5 Ways to Wellbeing guidance in our school community and we welcome the opportunity to encourage our children and staff to reflect on the 5 ways each day in school and the positive steps they can take to look after their own mental health.

We will keep you informed about the project over the coming weeks through newsletters, ParentMails, the school website and Twitter. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at all.

Mr Togher 

PSHE Lead