Let’s turn the world green for good mental health!

Friday 17th May

St Stephen’s CofE Primary 

Alarmingly, 75% of children and young people who experience mental health problems aren’t getting the help they need.

Children’s emotional well-being is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health helps them develop the resilience to cope with whatever life throws at them and grow into well-rounded, healthy adults.

Things that can help keep children and young people mentally well include:

• being in good physical health, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise

• having time and freedom to play, indoors and outdoors

• being part of a family that gets along well most of the time

• going to a school that looks after the wellbeing of all its pupils

• taking part in local activities

Other factors are also important, including feeling loved, trusted, understood and safe. Children who are optimistic, and resilient, have some control over their lives and feel like they belong are more likely to have good mental well-being.

The green ribbon is the international symbol of mental health awareness.  So whether you go all out in head to toe green or show your solidarity with a green ribbon, green socks or a green hair, this is a great way to get involved and open up conversations about mental health.

Our Wellbeing Message from School Council

We are more than just a school, we are an entire community of people who all want to lift each other up inlove and learning!  We as a school council have compiled our favourite resources for students and their families to read and use at home and in their daily lives. We looked through these at a council meeting and picked out the very best for our community.

Visit our school website Health and Wellbeing section to see what our children have put together to help you and our children.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us 

https://www.st-stephens.richmond.sch.uk/page/health-and-wellbeing/124107 

https://www.annafreud.org/about/ 

Family and Community Stress

85 percent of parents and caregivers say they would benefit from resources to support their child and/or teen when they show signs of stress or anxiety.

Introducing the final set of videos from the Positive Parenting, Thriving Kids Project – a series of free resources with practical, evidence-based information and skills to address your most common parenting challenges. The project is part of the Child Mind Institute’s innovative partnership with the state of California.

The series is organized into four categories, each containing multiple videos. All videos are available in both English and Spanish. Ver episodios en español ▸

Learn how to talk to your child about difficult topics such as racism, community violence, and more.

   ▸ How do I help my child with encountering and responding to racism and discrimination?

Get advice on how to have honest conversations around racism and discrimination with your child — including how to prepare them for what to do when they experience racism.

  ▸ How do I support my child when they’re exposed to or witness community violence?

Learn how to build a strong support system and work with your child on ways to stay safer in your community.

[https//childmind.org/positiveparenting/parent-health-concerns/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=oneoff&utm_campaign=pptk-t4-2024-04&utm_content=pptk-parent-health-concerns]▸ How do I help my child with a parent’s mental and physical concerns?

Sharing age-appropriate information can help kids make sense of the situation. Get guidance on what to say and do when your child is experiencing a parent’s health struggles.

▸ How do I talk to my child about death and grief?

Grieving while parenting can be incredibly difficult. Hear from families who have experienced death and grief and learn how to seek comfort in supportive connections.

▸ How do I help my child through divorce and separation?

Stability and structure are so important when children experience divorce, but how do you create that? Learn how to develop routines and protect your children from conflict.

We hope you will find these videos and resources helpful as you navigate today’s parenting challenges.

Building off the success of Healthy Minds, Thriving Kids, the Positive Parenting, Thriving Kids Project is the second youth mental health campaign funded by the state of California in partnership with the Child Mind Institute.

Check out the full range of our Thriving Kids resources here.

INTEGRATED LEARNING STRATEGIES

Using "tools" in therapy and in-home sessions makes movement fun!

Do you have kids that are stuck in a rut? When they first started doing movement exercises in the home or in therapy sessions...

They had fun!

They were engaged!

They were willing to participate!

But...as time wore on, did your kids and students slowly get tired, bored and uncooperative with the movements?

We find this all the time with many students. If you aren't constantly changing your activities and introducing new exercises, they go into a big time slump. After that, it's hard to motivate them to do anything!

When that happens, we find the best way to "spice" things up, is to bring in different types of "tools."

Tools can mean a number of things. It may be toys, manipulatives, exercise equipment or even hands-on objects. Anything the child can hold or manipulate with their hands, feet and body to create the same types of movement.

For example, you can roll a child on a peanut ball to engage their core muscle while they also use their arm and hand strength to complete a puzzle. Using both the ball and the puzzle helps work the core without the exercise seeming tedious and boring.

If you need more ideas of how to use "tools" in your in-home and therapy sessions, here are a few of our favorites.

(FREE) Brain-Building Stretchy Band Activities: Use stretchy bands to help kids cross the midline, perform heavy work activities and strengthen the arms for handwriting.

(FREE) Balance Steppers for Balance and Coordination: Balance and coordination activities don't have to be boring when you use different types of balance steppers in place of a balance beam. It also gives the kids an extra challenge!

(FREE) Back to Front Activities: In this exercise series, you can use all sorts of fun tools to get kids crossing the midline from front to back to engage both the front and back sides of the brain.

(FREE) Scooter Boards for Vestibular: These are some of my all-time favorites for the kids. They can't get enough of scooters and many of these exercises they've never tried before.

Check out the Skylarks charity for lots of useful information for children with additional needs

info@skylarks.charity