Children’s Mental Health Week at King’s Gloucester

07 Mar 2023

We had a fantastic week in February celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week, with a host of activities taking place throughout the school to promote positive mental wellbeing.

The school activities programme always aims to offer a range of skills and experiences, but this week took things even further with hip-hop yoga, discos, dog walking, smoothie blending (and drinking), football golf, the King’s Mile, multi-sensory mindfulness and calm-inducing colouring taking place. There were also sessions on how to get the best sleep and a parent workshop on how to help develop resilience in children.

 

Trying something new, encouraging students to think about their feelings and look after their mental health were at the forefront of this week of extra activities, to help students learn the important soft skills which help us all to keep things in balance. Raising awareness of how to promote positive mental health is a vital part of life for our young people.

As part of Children’s Mental Health Week, the Chaplaincy Centre was also turned into an interactive, multi-sensory prayer and meditation space. The focus of the space was a metal sculpture, which represented the burning bush where Moses encountered God. Lights illuminated the sculpture in varying colours and patterns and there was gentle music and a lavender scent to create a calming atmosphere. On the floor around the sculpture were various objects with questions about our journey through life. Pupils were invited to respond by drawing or writing their thoughts and prayers on lollipop sticks. Many did, but others also just sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet. We are grateful to local artist Paul Hobbs www.arthobbs.com for loaning his sculpture for this event.