Reporting on St. Julian's Children Mental Health Week
Primary "Children Mental Health Week" Activities
“Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously” (Article 12 of the UN Convention for Children's Rights).
In Primary, as adults, we should empower children and young people and provide them with time, space, and opportunities to express themselves. We must also ensure they have opportunities to influence aspects of their worlds that directly or indirectly affect their well-being. Empowering children and young people can have a positive impact on their health and well-being.
For example, children and young people who feel that their voices are heard and that what they say makes a difference have higher levels of self-efficacy and self-esteem. They also have a greater sense of community and empowerment; they can work together to create positive changes for themselves and others.
In the Classroom
The students learned about their rights that are written and regulated in the United Nations, e.g
- This obliges adults to guarantee adequate protection of children
- Provide them with time, space and opportunities to express their opinions freely by themselves.
However, the children also learned that these rights come alongside with responsibilities:
- Responsibility to other people
- Responsibility to take care of themselves
- Responsibility to show love and respect to others
- Responsibility to be the best they can be
The students were enthusiastic, attentive and supportive throughout all the assemblies.
A reminder was given about the two worry boxes, in which students can post a note outlining something they feel they need support with. A mature student in year 6 shared a video about how he used the worry box and now has weekly sessions related to his well-being.
Mr Tom Ackner ran the assembly, the focus of which was to introduce smaller students to“ what is mental health?” and who can support them.
Mrs Joana Lobo and Mrs Ceri Grunewald-Davies also led a parent workshop about aspects of positive parenting. We discussed with a group of parents how we can teach children to listen to us by using Active Listening strategies:
- How to become aware of children’s emotions and validate feelings
- Naming feelings when they are unable to do it by themselves
- Encouraging children not to act on initial feelings but to allow time to think
- Setting limits and giving clear instructions
- Modelling the behaviour we expect from our children
- Building listening skills
The atmosphere during the workshop was positive and supportive. Parents asked questions and shared experiences, some laughter was had, and support was given during the session and in meetings post-presentation.
Ceri Grunewald-Davies(Mrs G.D), Head of Learning Support and Joana Lobo, Primary Psychologist
Secondary "Children Mental Health Week" Activities
For Children Mental Health Week 2024, our Secondary Counsellors, Ms Mariana Mangerão and Ms Edele Nolan, created a video where we filmed teaching staff here at St Julian's speaking about their own mental health and encouraging young people to open up and use their voice to speak about how they feel. The video was delivered during Mental Health Week assemblies for all students from year 7 to year 13.
The message of the video focused on the importance of encouraging all young people here at St Julian's to speak up about how they are feeling and understand that their voice really matters.
The secondary counselling team also facilitated lessons, creative activities and discussions on this theme for students throughout the week.
For our parent community, the secondary counselling team ran a webinar on Teen Mental Health First Aid, where we focused on giving parents information on the Mental health issues many of our young people are dealing with, such as depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide (please see the webinar reposted in the newsletter). The webinar taught our parent community how to identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illness and how best to support their child through mental health challenges. This webinar has been recorded and can be accessed at any time.
Ms Edele Nolan, Lead Secondary Counsellor and Ms Mariana Mangerão, Secondary Counsellor
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