From 7-13 February 2022, schools, youth groups, organisations and individuals across the UK will take part in Children’s Mental Health Week. This year’s theme 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’.

For Children's Mental Health Week 2022, we will be encouraging children (and adults) to consider how they have grown and how they can help others to grow. 

One article provides a particularly strong link this week:

 

Article 24 – Every child has the right to the best possible health.

Governments must provide good quality health care, clean water, nutritious food, and a clean environment and education on health and well-being so that children can stay healthy. Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this.

 

 

Below are some suggested activities which could be completed at home with your children in support of this:

1) Helping others and being kind can make us feel happier.  Make a 'thank you' card for someone you know to surprise them with an unexpected thank-you or make a ‘thank you’ chart or ‘tree’ for your class and ask everyone to put messages onto it.

2) Create a list or poster detailing all the people who you can talk to if you are worried about something.  They are the duty bearers for your rights. How many people can you think of? Display this around your school to remind the other pupils of who they can talk to if they are feeling worried, sad or anxious.  

3) Mindfulness and relaxation can help our mental health. Try this relaxation activity. How did it make you feel? When might it be good or help you to do this activity?   Try it out and see how it helps!