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What is mental health?
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.
Who is affected by mental health?
One in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. One in 10 children get depression and anxiety therefore it is important that we give children the tools at an early age to be able to manage this.
Why is mental health important?
During these uncertain times, it is now more important than ever that we should be taking care of our mental health. At Pinkwell, we are committed to supporting our young people, not just academically but mentally as well. Our staff work to ensure that we support young people to maintain a healthy mind.
What does having a positive mental health mean?
Positive mental health allows people to:
Realise their full potential
Cope with the stresses of life
Work productively
Make meaningful contributions to their communities
Be resilient to mistakes and failures and turn these into opportunities for growth
How to maintain a positive mental health?
Getting professional help if you need it
Connecting with others
Staying positive
Getting physically active
Eating a balanced diet
Helping others
Getting enough sleep
Developing coping skills
Going to school that looks after the wellbeing
Feeling loved, trusted, understood, valued and safe
Accepting who they are and recognising what they are go at
Having a sense of belonging in their family, school and community
Taking part in local activities for young people
Having the strength to cope when something is wrong (resilience) and the ability to solve problems.
What do you do at Pinkwell to promote positive well-being?
The children’s mental wellbeing is a key priority at Pinkwell. We develop our children to be able to identify their feelings and respond to them in an appropriate manner by using the Zones of Regulations. We also encourage our children to talk to the adults in the school and hold wellbeing weeks throughout the year.
In addition to this we use the Habits of the Mind as part of our behaviour approach. We teach the children to be resilient, flexible and understanding in their approach to situations. This in turn enables children to reflect on their own actions both in and out of the classroom.
Outside of the classroom, we also run a number of interventions to support a child’s social, emotional and mental health. These can be run by our Learning Mentor- Lesley Mayo or can also be facilitated by our Assistant Psychologist/Educational Psychologist. These groups include:
Zones of Regulation- a tool for emotional regulation.
Happiness Curriculum- a tool for building self-esteem.
Time to Talk- a tool for discussing feelings and building relationships
ELSA- 1:1 sessions to work on bespoke areas
Draw for Talking- 1:1 sessions to work on bespoke areas
What can you do at home to support what we do at Pinkwell?
It is important that children have time to debrief about their day at school. We can all sometimes get in the habit of just talking about the negatives or the problems. Our advice would be to ask children some simple positive questions such as
Tell me your favourite part of the day?
What did you enjoy learning about today?
How could you solve this problem when you go back tomorrow?
Can you teach me something you learnt in school today?
Using Habits of Mind at home is also really important to supporting our school’s journey. You could encourage them to be persistent with their homework, think flexibly to generate new ways to answer questions, respond with awe and wonder by taking them to see new and exciting attractions!
Using the Zones language at home to discuss your child’s feelings will help to promote emotional regulation- more information here!
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