This week is the national week raising awareness for children’s mental health. Mrs Mead and I led assembly together on Wednesday and discussed with children that mental health is about our feelings, our thinking, our emotions and our moods.

We discussed how everybody knows how to look after their physical health but looking after our mental health is just as important. Mrs Mead explained the difference between small feelings and big feelings. She shared with the children the ways in which we can prevent smaller feelings from becoming bigger ones. As well as this she discussed how to try manage the bigger feelings.

We both highlighted to the children how important it is to talk to someone ‘trusted’ about your feelings because talking about your emotions can help. Mrs Mead rightly said that the same as we ‘TELL TELL TELL’ when we feel unsafe or worried about something or someone, we should ‘TALK TALK TALK ‘ when we have small or bigger emotions.

Mrs Mead reminded the children of the Listen Ear program we have, and how to access this if as a way in which children can reach out to ask an adult for help. We have designated adults in the  school that are trained ‘Listening Ear’ champions.

Across the assembly we showed a terrific clip from the Anna Freud centre. The link is below and worth watching.

Talking Mental Health: Animation & Teacher Toolkit | Anna Freud

We do hope that the children recognised that taking care or your mental health is every bit as important as looking after your physical health. We also will be championing the ‘TALK TALK TALK’ mantra as well. Talking about your emotions and feelings is a key part of helping your mental health.