On Thursday 20th April, it was Springfield’s first Mental Health Awareness Day. All classes accessed a number of different activities all based around mental health and well-being.
We teamed up with Robert at Healthy Heads Education and The Yogi Group.
The sessions included:
- An outdoor session all about resilience with Robert
- A classroom-based all based around the science of the brain.
- A session where we could reflect, listen to music and take time to be in the present, &
- A yoga session with the Yogi Group Team.
In the outdoor session with Robert, the children have playing games all based around the characteristic of resilience. The children have been learning about how important this skill is to succeed in life especially with our learning at school. We all need to learn to become more resilient and adapt to change in our lives whether it be physical or mental.
In the classroom-based session with Kelly, the children have been learning about the different parts of brain and what each part does. The brain is very complex and we’ve been learning about each part, what it does and why it does it. This helped us understand the behaviours we show but also the emotions we feel. Kelly related the parts of the brain to animals including:
- The Prefrontal Cortex where the brain reasons with your thoughts – Wise Owl
- Amygdala which controls our fight, freeze or flight response – The Guard Dog & The Monkey
- Hippocampus is where your memory is stored along with parts that help you learn – Elsa the Elephant
Key Stage Two took part in a mindfulness session where all the children were doing mindfulness colourings and listening to relaxing music. The children had to try and cut out all environmental factors (noise, peers etc.) and focus on ourselves and live in the present.
In the yoga session, the children were asked to really think about they breathe in using their stomach as well not just lungs/chest.
The children then conducted some breathing exercises which can be completed at home and at school to really help them regulate. After this, the children then had to stand tall and become a tree or a mountain who is alone in a forest. The children then would become rooted and strong and not let outside elements rock their mind.
The day was a great success, the children seemed to love the different activities.
Here are some quotes:
- EYFS Child (OL) – “The Pirate game was great because we had to collect treasures in different was”.
- Year 1 Child (LJ) – “The games outside were my favourite – I was able to learn from it”.
- Year 2 Child (MC) – “I like the lady with the brain, the animals do different jobs and make us feel”.
- Year 3 Child (LS) – “The yoga was good because deep breathing help calmed me calm down”.
- Year 4 Child (LC) – “The PE outside with Rob was great because I love PE, I enjoyed the team games”.
- Year 5 Child (IS) – “It was when we went outside for the team games, the healthy heads was good. I learnt about the parts of the brain I didn’t know were there”.
- Year 6 Child (E-R H) – “The Yoga was fun because we learnt new exercises and how to control my breathing which I can use at home”.
