Mental Health and Well-Being
Children's Mental Health and Well-Being at Sacred Heart
This area on our website, will offer a safe space for children to come and reflect, and use the resources as a reminder of their coping strategies.
At Sacred Heart, we have put a great emphasis on the well-being of our children through a variety of things:
- Feelings pots
- Dedicated Mental Health lessons through Healthy Mind Happy Me.
- Well-being Friday afternoons - focus on Yoga and Massage Therapy.
- Dedicated time to celebrate Children's Mental Health Week.
- Specialist Nurture provision with trained staff.
- Opportunities to discuss worries and concerns they may have through class worry monsters.
The emotional wellbeing of children is just as important as their physical health. Good mental health allows children and young people to 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 the 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 for young people.
Other factors are also important, including:
- feeling loved, trusted, understood, valued and safe
- being interested in life and having opportunities to enjoy themselves
- being hopeful and optimistic
- being able to learn and having opportunities to succeed
- accepting who they are and recognising what they are good at
- having a sense of belonging in their family, school and community
- feeling they have some control over their own life
- having the strength to cope when something is wrong (resilience) and the ability to solve problems.
Sometimes we may feel anxious about new situations, or meeting new people, or going to new places, and when this happens we see changes in our bodies. We may feel butterflies in our tummy, our hands may get a little sweaty and our heart starts to beat a little faster.
Have a little look at the illustrations in the link and pictures below, which will help you if you become anxious.
There are also some self-help activities which we talk about in school, use these to help you :)
If you have tried these and they don't work, you could always have a look at this stress relief chart.
It will look familiar to you because it is just like our 5 point scale chart, that your teachers wear at school to help you when you need to calm down.