Wheelock's Mental Health Champions
With our Mental health being such an important thing in our lives, at Wheelock, we have appointed an amazing team of Mental Health Champions.
These children have an important responsibility in school. They help teachers to support children across all year groups with their wellbeing. In order to do this, the children have been running Mental Health clubs every lunch time. The children plan these clubs and deliver them to children of all ages. These have been a huge success so far. Children have created Worry Monsters, took part in emotion art, played board games and even run sporting activities on the field.
When they are not leading a club, they are visible on the playground to support, play with and help any children who need it. The Mental Health Champions also check our school Worry Box daily. They deal with any worries that they can and alert teachers if the worry needs an adult. We are extremely proud of our Mental Health Champions and look forward to seeing how they continue to succeed.
The Mental Health Champions love to support and engage children from all across the school.
Wellbeing!
Now more than ever, our mental health and wellbeing is of paramount importance. We need to look after ourselves in order to be the best we can be.
"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. The social and emotional skills, knowledge and behaviours that young people learn in the classroom can help them to build resilience and set the pattern for how they will manage their mental health throughout their lives."
Self Care
Children, just like adults, benefit greatly from consistent and deliberate self-care activities. Even if they are not currently stressed or upset, teaching kids to regularly take care of themselves will help ensure that they have the skills to manage future stressors in healthy and effective ways.
Stop, Breathe, Think
Activities to promote good mental health
- Mindfulness colouring
- Doodling
- Going for a nature walk
- Collecting different things from nature and creating a natural collage
- Reading your favourite book
- Listening to music
- Taking part in an active activity like running, dancing or walking.
At Wheelock, we support children with their mental health and wellbeing to ensure that they leave here happy, confident individuals ready to strive in the community.
Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Pathway
The Mental Health pathway that is followed at Wheelock is attached below. This is used to identify children who may need extra support. This bespoke support, created within Wheelock, allows us to identify children and provide them with support and guidance early.
Our Treetop Provision to support groups
At Wheelock, we support the children's mental health and wellbeing through 6 week planned and impacted interventions called Treetops sessions. These are delivered by Treetops leaders each week. They are a mixture of discussions, active and creative tasks. Children are referred to Treetops by their teacher or through a concern raised by a parent.
The overview of Treetops sessions is attached below.