Children's Mental Health Week 2022
The theme of this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week is Growing Together.
Growing Together is about growing emotionally and finding ways to help each other grow. Challenges and setbacks can help us to grow and adapt and trying new things can help us to move beyond our comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential. However, emotional growth is often a gradual process that happens over time, and sometimes we might feel a bit ‘stuck’.
As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child’s mental health. Check out the free resources for families below.
Our school uses SCARF for its PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) education. With SCARF, children learn the vital life skills needed to help them be happy, healthy and safe.
We’re thinking the different ways we can keep ourselves healthy and safe, including staying safe online. We’ll be learning skills to help us look after our body. Older children will be learning about assertiveness, recognising the influence of friends and also how to think critically about the decisions we make and managing risks safely.
Please click link below for resourcesWhy the mental health of young people matters
In these times, where there are so many uncertainties , stressful experiences and challenges, we must now (more than ever) look after our mental health. As a school, we are committed to supporting children in maintaining a healthy mind and whilst schools are closed, please use this resource to support your children through this challenging time.
Good mental health is the foundation of young people’s emotional and intellectual growth, underpinning the development of confidence, independence and a sense of self worth.
Young people who are mentally healthy will have the ability to:
• Develop psychologically, emotionally, creatively, intellectually and spiritually
• Initiate, develop and sustain mutually satisfying personal relationships
• Use and enjoy solitude
• Become aware of others and empathise with them
• Play and learn
• Face problems and setbacks and learn from them
• Enjoy and protect their physical health
• Make a successful transition to adulthood in due course
It is clear that parenting style has a critical impact on children’s emotional and cognitive development. Key protective factors include: feeling loved, trusted and understood, having interest in life, optimism, autonomy, self-acceptance, and resilience.
In addition, the school environment has been found to play a role. Whole school approaches to mental health promotion, and well-evidenced forms of anti-bullying strategies, for example, have been found to be protective of children’s mental health.
As a result of this, at Fritwell we will continue to support you and your families in providing opportunities to develop your children's well-being.