Mental Health and Wellbeing

As we all know physical activity is proven to have a positive effect on both children and adult’s mental health and well-being, that is why in Class 1 we start every day with ‘Wake up Shake up’ and Dough Disco.

Every Wednesday in Class 1 is ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’. We dedicate a day to thinking about our own and others’ feelings. In Literacy we may think about how a character is feeling or how they could have dealt with things differently. In the afternoon, we have Art which the children love! Creating art seems to boost their self-esteem and provides a sense of accomplishment in the children. They love to share their creations in our ‘Circle Gallery’ and discuss what they love about each other’s work. We finish the day with P.S.H.E activities, discussions and stories where we learn about all the different feelings; what they look like, how they make our bodies feel, and learn strategies to deal with them. We usually end the day with mindfulness activities such as Cosmic Yoga, Cosmic Zen Den or Go Noodle.

In our Classroom, we also have an area that is dedicated to our well-being and self-regulation. We are encouraged to use this area when we need to calm our bodies and we have access to it all day, every day. We can sit and use breathing techniques we have learnt, colour, fiddle, select a book or speak to/cuddle our feelings monster.

We are very lucky in Class 1 to have a weekly Forest School session. There’s nothing better for your mental health and well-being than being at one with nature. Forest School is an inspirational educational ethos that focuses on developing children's personal, social and emotional development through regular outdoor woodland experiences. 

In Class 1 we like to sing a lot as it makes us feel good! We sing songs to wake us up, to start the day, to line up, to make a circle, to help us follow rules, to help us learn and just for fun! We really like to make up our own songs too and share them with each other.

Our Learning Friends also help us to manage ourselves, developing our perseverance through Nelly the Elephant, focus through Jock the Dog and to become more reflective like Charlie the Chimp.

Good communication with parents and carers is also paramount when ensuring all children are feeling happy, safe and secure.