Mental Health & Well-being
Below is information on our wellbeing sessions in school, please scroll down further to find more write ups and what each class has been up to!
Doncaster Stories - 2022
Children's Mental Awareness Health Week 2022
World Mental Health Day
We celebrated World Mental Health Day by taking part in #Take10toRead. This was in conjunction with Doncaster Stories who led a zoom session with the author and illustrator, Tom Percival. Children finished the activity by spending ten minutes reading a good book!
Autumn Term (1)
Year 1
We have read the story, The Colour Monster in class and discussed our feelings, thinking of different names for them and when we experience them.
Year 2
During this half term we have been taking part in Mindful Meditation sessions. Children have enjoyed taking five minutes out of their day to relax their minds and offload their worries, using The Worry Train as a focus. The ringing of the meditation bell helped us to finish our session.
Year 3
We have been busy this half term completing our We Can Grow project in our Wellbeing sessions. We have planted our own seeds and plants and enjoyed looking after them each week to make sure they grow. We are looking forward to eating our own vegetables soon too!
Year 4
In year 4 children have been learning all about their mental health as part of their weekly Wellbeing sessions. They have considered their own strengths and weaknesses and the achievements they are proud of, using the book Giraffes Can't Dance as a stimulus.
Year 5
This half term children have been working alongside coaches from Kixx as part of the IWill project.
Year 6
Children have created their own hot air balloons after reading the story Oh, The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss. Children discussed having a growth mindset and thought of their own aspirations for the coming year.
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Summer Term (1)
Mental Health Awareness Week - 10th to 16th May 2021
Nursery
The children talked about how they felt if they were feeling a little bit nervous and how it made their bodies feel like butterflies in their tummies. However, we also talked about how we can help both our body and mind by taking part in activities that make us feel happy. We love to dance in Nursery, and this helps both are bodies and our minds.
Reception
In Reception we focused on the story Colour Monster which is all about different emotions. As we read through the story the children tried to relate to times when they felt happy or upset, just like the Colour Monster did in the story. We also made squishy monsters and chose our favourite emotion from the story. The children filled their balloons with flour and drew the emotion they had chosen on their squishy monster.
Year 1
This week is mental health week. Year one have enjoyed reading the story of ‘The colour monster’. We designed our own monsters to show how we’re feeling. Some felt love, some felt happy, some felt sad and some felt mixed emotions! We had an attempt at making stress squishes but they didn’t work out too well.
Year 2
The children have been exploring nature that is all around us. We went outside to do a nature hunt to see what we could find.
Year 3
This week was all about connecting with nature. We read a book called Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers and reflected on the importance of not "bottling up" our feelings. Year 3 thought about the different things that they could do outside to help their wellbeing.
We connected with nature by:
— Hugging a tree
— Laying down on the grass
— Blowing a dandelion
— Making a daisy chain
— Listening to birds sing
— Finding a bright coloured flower
We also coloured in the artwork donated to Mental Health Awareness Week by Paul Cummins whilst listening to calming music. This was a tulip.
Year 4
As part of our work for mental health awareness week, we discussed why our mental health is important. We also discussed what things we can do to help our mental health.
Lots of us suggested going for walks, exercise and less time on a device.
We then went outside and took a photo of something that made us feel happy, inspired or calm.
We are incredibly lucky to be doing work as part of our weekly wellbeing with YouGrow. This means that each week we get to go outside and work in nature.
Year 5
In Year 5 the children considered ways of being healthy before considering how we can keep our minds healthy as well. They discussed how we can positive thoughts that can make us feel comfortable and negative thoughts that make us feel uncomfortable. The children were able to talk about different scenarios of what different people could do in the situations when they were having negative thought and feelings. Together, we then thought about ways of being positive to have a healthy mental health, and again what we can do when we are not feeling in this way. They were able to create posters to demonstrate their learning focusing on being positive.
Year 6
As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, Year 6 discussed the power of nature. Miss Vickers showed them images of natural scenes and asked them to describe how they felt. They agreed that nature made them feel calm, relaxed and happy. Year 6 explored how nature can promote good mental wellbeing, and they discussed ways they could bring more nature into their lives. They created an information page all about the links between nature and good mental wellbeing.
Autumn Term (1)
Year 2 - 19th October 2020
We had loads of fun on our local walk on a Friday. Thanks so much to Mrs McAteer for her help in showing us around the woods. We loved looking at all the different carved faces that we found.
Year 3 - 15th October 2020
Nature Walk
Year 4 - Friday 2nd October Woodland Walk
Year 4 really enjoyed their walk around a local wood, exploring the amazing wood carvings and enjoying squelching in the mud! We all had big smiles and agreed being outside is brilliant for our wellbeing.
Year 1 - Friday 2nd October 2020
Year one have enjoyed some mindfulness colouring this week. They were given some grown up colouring with narrow lines so they had to be really careful to make their art work look neat. We listened to calming music whilst we were doing it which had a matching video of tropical fish. It was so peaceful!
Year 1 - Friday 25th September 2020
This afternoon as part of our wellbeing time, year one enjoyed some relaxing crafts. We read the book 'Silly Billy' and made worry dolls. We decorated them with our favourite colours and craft materials. The idea is that we can tell our worry doll about the things that we are worried about so that we don't need to worry ourselves. Some of us even made a worry doll FOR our worry doll, like Billy did in the story. We listened to relaxing music whilst we were doing it and some of us said they felt 'really calm'.
Wellbeing Week - 14th to 18th September 2020
The children have taken part in various workshops this week to celebrate our Wellbeing Week in school. We have had a visit from The Mime Guy (Steve Murray) who showed us how God’s love can give us hope when we feel frightened. On Tuesday, some children took part in a Tai Chi class, whilst others participated in learning Samurai Swords! The Worry Wizard is set to join us at the end of the week, alongside a specialist dance teacher from Creative Dance, who will be teaching us a combination of street dance and yoga.
The children have also been thinking about ways to keep our minds healthy by what we eat. Mrs Courtney has made healthy banana splits with lots of year groups, where children have sampled fresh fruits such as mango, raspberries, blueberries and raspberries and discussed how a handful of marshmallows and chocolate chips, in moderation, are also healthy toppings for a banana split.
Also this week year 4 have been lucky enough to receive a cookery class from one of our parents, Mrs. Marcus. The children had fun chopping up a range of vegetables and learning about spices before eating their delicious curry and rice – the school smelt amazing! Thank you Mrs. Marcus!
During the afternoons children have been reading stories designed to promote and encourage mental health and wellbeing, such as The Worrysaurus and The Colour Monster and they have produced art and craft work based on these books.
We have also had a Mindful Cycle each day, where children have had the opportunity to cycle or scoot around our track with their friends.
All in all, we have had a fantastic week celebrating being back at school with each other and the children have really enjoyed experiencing new activities, with different visitors, and learning about ways to keep their minds and bodies healthy. Well done everyone!
Nursery
The children really enjoyed the different activities this week.
First we learned about mime and watched a performance, we really enjoyed it.
The next day we did Tai Chi, learning about five different animal movements in a slow and calm way. We especially enjoyed being a Tiger!
We tried some different fruit and vegetables, learning about how to keep our bodies healthy, and also took part in some meditation, relaxing our minds and bodies.
We decorated butterflies to remind us of the butterflies in the story ‘Worrysaurus’. We had fun taking part in all the different activities.
Reception
The Mime Guy
In Reception we were very lucky to listen to and watch a short performance from The Mime Guy. The children were fascinated by him and some children even tried to copy the actions he was doing.
Tai Chi
The children had the opportunity during this week to try doing some Tai Chi for the very first time and they thoroughly enjoyed it. The children learnt how to move their bodies in different ways and learnt how to do some of the Tai Chi positions.
Creative Dance
Our final activity this week was taking part in a dance lesson. The children practiced different moves and created a routine with the dance teacher. The children worked really hard during the session and it was fantastic to see how much they were enjoying themselves.
Year 1
Banana Splits
We have been learning about healthy eating and made a healthy banana split with Mrs Courtney. It was so yummy, we ate up all of the fruit and even asked Miss Goodwin if we could have some more the next day. YUM!
Mindful Cycle
Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed their mental health cycle and scoot on Monday, as part of our wellbeing week. Thankfully the sun was shining and we had some shade to relax. Definitely a nice start to our week.
Tai Chi
Tai Chi, what an experience! We learnt about the five animals in tai chi and all felt so relaxed and calm after our session with Ron. We have decided to practise more Tai Chi meditation in class. Some of us were able to feel our own energy in between our hands after the session.
Year 2
Year 3
Banana Splits
Year 3 had lots of fun making banana splits with Mrs Courtney! We learnt all about healthy eating, then prepared a banana by cutting it in half. We added lots of healthy toppings, poured over some chocolate sauce and tucked in. It was SO yummy!
Mindful Cycle
Year 3 had a lovely morning riding their bikes around the track as part of their wellbeing week. Miss Fiddler was super impressed at how amazing we all were on our bikes and scooters. We enjoying getting some fresh air and some exercise.
The Mime Guy
As part of our wellbeing week, Year 3 enjoyed watching a performance from The Mime Guy - Steve. He talked to us about the art of miming, then performed parts of the gospel for us.
Samurai Swords
Another activity we had for wellbeing week was samurai swords. We had so much fun learning about the ancient art of the Samurai, and having a go ourselves!
Year 4
We had lots of different activities during wellbeing week in Year 4! We thoroughly enjoyed them all.
Mime Workshop
On Monday 14th September we got to watch a mime performance. We were absolutely amazing during the session and really enjoyed watching another form of performance art.
On Tuesday afternoon, we had the fantastic opportunity to go out in groups and work with a parent to prepare and cook two curries. We then got to try them on the Wednesday! They were absolutely gorgeous. It was such a wonderful experience working with such fresh ingredients. We are very grateful to her for giving up her time to come and work with us.
On Wednesday we went outside onto the track on the field for a mindful cycle. We really enjoyed being able to bring our bikes and scooters into school. We also spent the afternoon developed our speaking and listening skills during a show and tell session. Some wonderful things were brought in for this.
On Thursday we had a visit from Amy Smythe The Worry Wizard who did some work with us on our feelings
On Friday we got to go into the hall with Miss Kirsty and do some creative dance.
Throughout the week we also shared and listened to ‘The Colour Monster’. We did lots of different work in class based around this beautiful book.
Year 5
Mime Workshop
On Monday 13th September, Year 5 enjoyed a workshop with a specialist mime performer. They were able to learn what is involved in this, and the importance of exaggerated actions to communicate the meaning of this. The stories shown to the children were ones that really underlined the importance of each individual and recognising their own self-worth and potential, knowing as well that God loves each of them individually.
Mindful Cycle
On Thursday 17th September, the children in Year 5 were able to take part in a cycling/scooter challenge. They had an hour to travel as far as they could in this time, and many of the children were able to do an incredible number of laps in the time (and some were able to do this without any breaks at any point).
The Worry Wizard
On Thursday 17th September, the children were involved in a ‘Worry Wizard’ workshop. They were able to consider the different things that they might worry about and how this makes them feel. They were also able to recognise the people/steps they can take to make themselves feel better.
Creative Dance
On Friday 18th September, the Year 5 children enjoyed their ‘Creative Dance’ session. They were able to practise a range of skills and balances which they then incorporated into a dance afterwards. They were able to take turns to show their individual skills within this.
Year 6
Monday 14th September 2020
The Mime Guy
Year 6 started off their wellbeing focused week with a performance from The Mime Guy – Steve. Steve spoke to the class about St Paul’s conversion and the power of God’s love to transform our lives. He also used his own personal stories to remind Year 6 about ensuring we value and treat others with the same respect and love that we would want to receive in return.
Wednesday 16th September 2020
Healthy Eating
As part of wellbeing week, Year 6 did some work with Mrs Courtney around the benefits of a having a healthy, balanced diet. They used a variety of ingredients to create some delicious banana splits.
Thursday 17th September 2020
Worry Wizard – Year 6
On Thursday, Year 6 took part in a Worry Wizard workshop. Year 6 learnt that it is completely normal to have worries and that talking about worries with friends or trusted adults is a way to help us feel better. The class thought about different things they could do if their worries felt too much. They all agreed that time spent with friends, playing games and doing exercise are a great way to combat negative thoughts and feelings.
Friday 18th September 2020
Wellbeing activities
For our second Friday afternoon wellbeing slot, Year 6 enjoyed a nature walk in Rossington woods. Miss Vickers challenged us to find the wood carvings and imitate the face’s expressions!
Friday 18th September 2020
Creative Dance
To finish off wellbeing week, Year 6 rehearsed and performed a creative dance with the help of Miss Kirsty. They also did a little bit of yoga to help them relax and focus on their breathing at the end of the day.
Friday 18th September 2020
Wellbeing cycle– Year 6
As part of our wellbeing focused week, Year 6 brought their bikes and scooters in to get some fresh air and exercise. They all had great fun cycling around the school track and racing Miss Vickers across the yard.
The Worry Wizard
Helping children and young people move from Worries to Wellbeing.
Year 1 - Friday 11th September
As part of our wellbeing time on Friday afternoon, we enjoyed a nature walk in Rossington woods. We looked for the faces that have been carved into the trees. We all collected some leaves and acorns and loved plodding along in our wellies! What a lovely way to end our week. We would recommend a visit if you haven't been yourself.
Year 6 - Friday 11th September 2020
Wellbeing activities
For our first Friday afternoon wellbeing slot, Year 6 were off scooting and enjoying using the outdoor equipment to play some football and rounders. It was a great way to relax after a busy second week!
