Mental Health & Wellbeing
Horton Mill Community Primary School actively values and supports pupils, families and staff on their journey to positive mental health. We aim to make a positive difference to pupils, their families and staff with their mental health and wellbeing.
Over the course of their education, children spend over 7,800 hours at school. With such a huge amount of time spent in the classroom, schools provide an ideal environment for promoting good emotional wellbeing and identifying early behaviour changes and signs of mental distress. Evidence shows that health and wellbeing programmes in schools, can lead to significant improvements in children's mental health, and social and emotional skill.
Five Ways to Mental Wellbeing
At Horton Mill, our whole school approach is based around 'The Five Ways to Mental Wellbeing.
Evidence suggests there are five steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing. Trying these things could help you feel more positive and able to get the most out of life.
Connect
There is strong evidence that indicates that feeling close to and valued by, other people is a fundamental human need and one that contributes to functioning well in the world. It’s clear that social relationships are critical for promoting wellbeing and for acting as a buffer against mental ill health for people of all ages.
With this in mind, try to do something different today and make a connection.
- Talk to someone instead of sending a text.
- Ask how someone’s weekend was and really listen when they tell you.
- Put five minutes aside to find out how someone really is.
Be active
Regular physical activity is associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety across all age groups. But it doesn’t need to be particularly intense for you to feel good – slower-paced activities, such as walking, can have the benefit of encouraging social interactions as well as providing some level of exercise.
Today, why not get physical? Here are a few ideas:
- Take the stairs, not the lift/escalator.
- Walk or cycle to school.
- Get off the bus one stop earlier than usual and walk the final part of your journey.
- Have a kick-about in a local park.
Take notice
Reminding yourself to ‘take notice’ can strengthen and broaden awareness, but this can be an alien idea to young minds. Studies have shown that being aware of what is taking place in the present directly enhances your well-being and savouring ‘the moment’ can help to reaffirm your life priorities. Heightened awareness also enhances your self-understanding and allows you to make positive choices based on your own values and motivations.
Take some time to enjoy the moment and the environment around you. Here are a few ideas:
- Recognises your strenths and areas to develop further.
- Identify what needs to be done to complete a task.
- Recognises errors in schoolwork and makes edits or changes.
- Understand and talk about his feelings.
- Recognizes other people’s needs and feelings.
- Understand how your own behaviour can affect others.
Learn
Continued learning through life enhances self-esteem and encourages social interaction and a more active life. The practise of setting goals, which is related to adult learning in particular, has been strongly associated with higher levels of wellbeing.
Why not learn something new today? Here are a few more ideas:
- Visit your local library and read a new book.
- Join a book club.
- Research something you’ve always wondered about.
- Learn a new word.
Give
Participation in social and community life has attracted a lot of attention in the field of wellbeing research. Individuals who report a greater interest in helping others are more likely to rate themselves as happy. Research into actions for promoting happiness has shown that committing an act of kindness once a week over a six-week period is associated with an increase in wellbeing.
We all have mental health, just as we all have physical health. Being mentally healthy means that we feel good about ourselves, make and keep positive relationships with others and can feel and manage the full range of emotions. These can range from happiness, excitement and curiosity through to less comfortable feelings such as anger, fear or sadness. Good mental health allows us to cope with life's ups and downs, to feel in control of our lives and to ask for help from others when we need support.
Mental Health Spectrum:
Mental health and mental illness are part of a 'spectrum', just as physical health and illness are. Throughout our lives, many different things can lead us to move up and down the spectrum such as the start or end of relationships, getting a new job or being made redundant, changes in physical health and good news or worries about those we are close to.
It is important to remember that recovery is possible, even from severe mental ill health, and that people with a mental ill-health diagnosis may be managing their condition well and still experiencing high levels of wellbeing.
The Five Ways to Wellbeing:
Often, life events that are outside our control can damage our mental health, and this is made worse if we feel powerless to do anything about them.
One of the ways we can re-gain a sense of control and nourish our mental health is to remember 'the five ways to wellbeing' which have been found in research to improve mental wellbeing in children and adults.
Parents Helpline
Worried about a child or young person? Contact the Parents Helpline on Young Minds website for free, confidential advice via the phone, email or webchat.
Call them for free on 0808 802 5544 from 9:30am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.
Taken from the Young Minds Website:
- Our Parents Helpline is available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- You’ll get through to a trained adviser who will listen and talk through your concerns in complete confidence.
- Your adviser will help you to understand your child’s behaviour and give you practical advice on what to do next.
- If you need further help, they’ll arrange for one of our qualified mental health professionals to call you for a 50-minute telephone consultation within seven days.
- Please note, calls may be recorded for monitoring or training purposes.
- Hard of hearing or speech-impaired? Please use Typetalk or Textdirect to contact us, or use our Parents Webchat.
- If English is not your first language, we can arrange for an interpreter as a member of LanguageLine.
MIND:
MIND is a mental health charity who works with children and familes to improve the lives of people with poor mental health. Click on the link below for more information.
https://www.mind.org.uk/