Mental Health and Well-being
At Dodleston CE Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.
Well-being: Support for Pupils
Keeping Active
Exercise releases chemicals, in your body, like endorphins and serotonin that help to improve your mood. If you exercise regularly, it can reduce your stress and symptoms of mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
Cosmic KidsA great website full of videos that make Yoga fun for everyone.
Go NoodleGo Noodle gets children up and moving to fun, engaging content and games. It allows children to wake up their bodies as well as engaging their minds.
BBC Super MoversThese are videos that will get your child up and moving, and they are linked to the curriculum. The can also be selected based on which key stage your child is in.
Meditation
This can help children to regulate their emotions, thereby having fewer meltdowns, reduce their impulsivity and improve concentration and focus.
https://www.meditationinschools.org/resources/ This website is a great free resource to support mindfulness, mediatation and calm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKSkAtFUjo0 This is a very calming meditation to follow which really focuses on your breathing and stillness.
New Horizon: Kids MeditationStruggling to get the kids to sleep? Allow these relaxing Sleep Stories, Guided Meditations and purposely-designed Sleep Meditations to get your little ones off to a perfect nights rest (also a free app that can be downloaded).
Guided Meditation for ChildrenThis website offers guided meditation through the form of audio clips.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness colouring is a relaxing and calming activity which can also encourage children to explore their creativity while improving fine motor skills.
Minfulness Colouring In SheetsPlenty of lovely animal pictures that can be downloaded for free.
More Mindfulness Colouring PagesOn here there are some beautiful intricate designs that can be printed for children and adults.
Mindfulness ActivitiesA list of 5-10 minute mindfulness activities you children could do daily.
Self-esteem
Self-esteem helps children cope with mistakes and build their resilience. It helps them try again, even if they fail at first. As a result, self-esteem will help them do better at school, at home, and with friends. Children with low self-esteem feel unsure of themselves, so improving self-esteem, improves confidence.
Self-esteem and Character Building for KidsThis website offers lots of lovely activities and games that you can complete with your children.
Self-esteem Printable ActivitiesThere are some wonderful activities here that you can print off for children.
Hygiene
Important now more than ever but educating children on good hygiene is the best way to avoid the spread of infection and disorders; teaching the principles of correct hygiene at an early age can help keep individuals healthy in later life, and be taught to future generations.
Hygiene ActivitiesGreat list of fun, engaging and exciting hygiene themed activities to do with children, particularly for younger children.
Food HygieneThere are some free food hygiene worksheets here for KS1 and KS2.
Hygiene & Health GamesThis website will give you links to a variety of resources that link to hygiene and health. For example; personal hygiene, staying fit, nutrition, human body.
Nutrition and Diet
Eating a nutritious diet helps you keep a healthy body. It also helps reduce your risk of developing some chronic diseases. New research finds that your food choices may also affect your mood and mental health. This is sometimes called the “food-mood connection.”
Food FactsLots of free resources that teach children where food comes from, hot to cooking and about healthy eating. There are also some lovely recipes on here if you are struggling for ideas with meals.
Self-care
Self-care is about the things that we can do to look after our own mental health.
Self-care TipsA variety of activates that will help you and your child to manage your wellbeing.
Calm ZonePlenty of breathing exercise, activities, games and videos to help let go of stress.
Self-care JournalYou can set your child up with a free account where they can keep an online mood journal, along with plenty of other self-care activities
Reflection
Personal reflection allows us to grow as human beings. It allows us to review what we have already done and think about targets and goals we would like for ourselves.
Children could keep a diary to write down their thoughts, feelings and emotions. They may even want to add newspaper articles about the current situation, as they are experiencing a unique moment in history.
Helping the local community
This helps to create stronger communities that are concerned with the well-being of each and every individual and creates a happier society for all.
Writing letters to family members that we cannot see or even the people who are currently isolated in our local care homes. It will allow the children to practise their letter writing skills as well as put a smile on someone else’s face.
Litter picking – This would need to be supervised activity and may not be able to occur if you are self-isolating, gloves would also need to be worn for this activity. The children often talk to us about wanting to litter pick around school and where they live. This is a great time to for us to focus on cleaning the environment around us.
Gardening
Gardening is educational and develops new skills including: Responsibility – from caring for plants. Understanding – as they learn about cause and effect (for example, plants die without water, weeds compete with plants) Self-confidence – from achieving their goals and enjoying the food they have grown.
BBC Gardening with KidsDifferent educational gardening activities developed with RHS.
Garden ActivitiesFun activities for families to learn together, while encouraging love for nature.