Mental Health Matters
At Our Lady & St Kenelm we recognise that good mental health is as important as good physical health. Our pupils are taught self-care techniques, including recognising and managing emotions, exercise, relaxation and how to build relationships through a rich and varied curriculum. We teach our children how they can help others with their mental health in age appropriate ways.
Working with Parents
- Parents are an integral part of our goal to strive for the best possible mental health for our children. We actively promote good mental health for all and make it part of our mission to further educate our parents, local community and beyond about the benefits of good mental health.
- Parents are always included in any concerns we have about a pupils’ health. We ensure that parents have a voice and recognise their contribution.
The Environment
- Calm & Peaceful Classrooms – our learning environments are set up to be safe and calming places for pupils to learn. Adults understand the importance of creating spaces that are conducive to good mental health.
- Appreciating Nature & Beauty – we’ve created places to nurture mental health in our school grounds. Our sensory garden is used to foster children’s joy and wonder
What is mental health?
We all have mental health.
Mental health is about our feelings, our emotions and our moods. Looking after our mental health is important.
We all have small feelings every day. These sometimes feel strong and overwhelming whether happy or sad, but they go away before too long.
Sometimes we experience big feelings. These feel strong and overwhelming for a long time. They stop us doing what we want to do in our lives.
At OLSK, we want all children to have the best possible start in life and we believe that educating children about positive mental and physical health underpins all that we do. Encouraging children to understand and be open about their feelings can give them the skills and resilience to cope with the new experiences and challenges they will encounter as they grow up.
At OLSK we;
- Make conversations about mental health a normal part of school life.
- Give our full attention to every child.
- Check our body language, ensuring we are open and relaxed.
- Ask open questions.
- Calmly stay with the feelings that arise and not steer away from the difficult emotions.
- Offer empathy rather than solutions.
- Remember we are all different.
- Look for clues about feelings.
Click on the link Zones of Regulation for a further brief explanation on the zones of regulation.
The Zones of Regulation are used to support children in understanding their emotions to then regulate them.
There are four ‘zones’, blue, green, yellow and red, as shown above. The children are taught that they will not always be in one zone but that they will move in and out of different zones.
The children ‘check in’ with their emotions at the beginning of the day and after lunch by noting which zone they are currently in. Usually this entails the child placing their name or picture on the colour that represents how they are feeling. This enables the teacher to gauge how best to settle the child so that they are ready to learn.
Techniques for returning back to the green zone could include:
Sensory activities in class or in the set up circuit in the school hall
A conversation with an adult to support them if something has upset them
Movement breaks within the classroom
Calming activities including mindfulness and breathing techniques
As part of of Children’s Mental Health week, Y6 are thinking of things that contribute towards having good mental health!
For children’s mental health week in Y2, we are thinking about the teaching of the birds and lilies. They don’t worry, God provides everything for them and made them exactly how they should be 💕 God is always there for our worries!
