Children’s Mental Health Week 2022
Dear Parents/Carers,
This year, Blanford Mere will be taking part in ‘Children’s Mental Health Week’ which begins on Monday 7th February.
For this year’s theme Growing Together, Place2Be is encouraging children (and adults) to consider how they have grown, and how they can help others to grow. 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’.
Please help us reach out to as many people as possible.
Around five children in every classroom have a mental health problem and many more struggle with challenges from bullying to bereavement. We do many things in school on a daily basis to support children's mental health and wellbeing, which is so important, so that children can flourish in and out of the classroom.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on mental health and wellbeing: and children’s lives have changed a great deal over this time. In a survey by Young Minds of nearly 2,500 young people at the start of 2021, two thirds said they believed that the pandemic would have a long-term negative effect on their mental health. We believe that children should not have to face mental health problems alone.
In school, the children will be participating in a range of classroom activities which will help them to explore what it means to grow together. At home, please talk to your children about what they have learnt in school.
Spread the Word
Word of mouth is a very powerful tool: why not try one of these effective actions?
Tell five others: Challenge your children to tell five others about what they’ve learned about mental health and how it affects everyone. Telling cousins, siblings or friends who go to different schools or live in different areas is a great way to raise awareness.
Random Acts of Kindness for Kids
A Random Act of Kindness for each week of the year!
Kindness can make the world a safer and happier place, and even has physical health benefits. The smallest actions can have a big impact; after all, kindness is contagious! Not only does kindness benefit the people around you, but it helps you feel happier, too. You can single-handedly make your environment a better place just by being kind. Here are 52 Acts of Kindness you can carry out to make yourself and other people smile.
https://schoolofkindness.org/random-acts-of-kindness-for-kids
We'd love your support to help us spread the word and raise awareness of the importance of children's mental health.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. J. Cartwright
(PSHE/School Council/RRSA Lead)
Useful websites:
Childine is a service provided by the NSPCC that includes a 24-hour helpline for children (under 18) on 0800 1111. childuk line.org.uk
Place 2 Be provides high quality mental health services in schools in England, Scotland and
Wales. Find out more at: https://www.place2be.org.uk/
Young Minds is a UK-wide children and young people’s mental health charity which advocates for every young person to get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what. https://www.youngminds.org.uk/
Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that all children have the right to the best health care possible, clean water to drink, healthy food and a clean and safe environment to live in. All adults and children should have information about how to stay safe and healthy. This is not just about children’s physical health, it’s about their mental health too.
