Children's Mental Health Week 2023

Place2Be launched the first-ever Children’s Mental Health Week in 2015 to shine a spotlight on the importance of children and young people’s mental health. At Bluecoat we are passionate about mental health every day and we are delighted to be working in partnership with Place2Be.

Now in its ninth year, Children's Mental Health Week took place week commencing 6th February 2023 and once again, we were keen to get involved. The theme for this year was 'Let's Connect' and making meaningful connections. With this being one of the elements of our Bluecoat Take 5 model, and something we value the importance of, we invited our families in to spend some time with us. 

There was a lot of making and team building activities and some classes got their parents involved in drama activities and mindfulness breathing.  In year 3 they shared a story about worry and then the parents designed a skin for their worry boxes. They also played an emotion game in small groups. 

What the children had to say:

"I like the story about worry.  It helps me to know that she also worries and it isn't a bad thing" - Ryan

"I sometimes worry but I can write my feelings down on paper and Mrs Stevens will check that I am ok" - Albie

"I sometimes worry at school but we talk about our Mental Health and share things" - Elliott

What the parents and carers had to say:

"Thank you for inviting us in, it is like a therapy session for us too"  

"This is a fantastic game.  It's nice to have the time to play it with a group of her friends."

"This game has really made us think a lot about how we think!"

"This is a great way to spend the afternoon.  We will definitely revisit these conversations at home too"

In Reception, parents and carers were invited in to take part in a Positive Touch session. They were given information about the benefits of Positive Touch before the children then demonstrated some of the massage moves. They all had a really relaxing time.

In Year 1, families were invited to come and complete a homemade jigsaw piece with their children. The idea was to complete a jigsaw that showed how they belonged as a family; a project that year 1 have been discussing generally about 'belonging'.

In Year 5, they looked at the Marine Conservation Society Blue Spaces project, which talks about how blue spaces can support mental wellbeing. They thought about the ways in which we are all connected to the ocean and what the ocean means to us. The created a thought map to illustrate the discussions.