Reaching high for the best for your child

I can't believe that today is the last day of Children's Mental Health week! It has been a super week and it has been so lovely to hear from the teachers about all of the fantastic things you have been doing to complete your jigsaw pieces. Well done to you all for having such a POSITIVE week. Please remember that looking after your mental health is something you should do EVERY DAY and not just this week. It is incredibly important that we all look after ourselves and each other. Here are my activities for Friday:

Physical - I went for a great walk in the fresh air with my friend (we were very sensible and were socially distanced). I'm sure lots of you recognise this lovely smiling face, it's Mrs Lewis from Year 5.

Give Back - I have decided to write a letter to my Nan who lives a long way away from me. She is very old and by herself and (even though I call her lots) I know she will appreciate a letter telling her about everything I am getting up to.

Self-care - Tonight has been declared reading night for me. I have already got my most comfortable cushions on an armchair and have warned the rest of my family not to disturb me because it will be time for just me and my book. Bliss! I know that the other Year 6 teachers are also doing the same this weekend as we are huge fans of reading and can't get enough of it!

I hope you all have a relaxing weekend full of positivity!

I can't believe we have had 4 days of this fantastic week already! This week is certainly reminding me how important it is to have a balance in your life and the difference that this has on how you feel. We all know that there are times when we would love to just play on our consoles all day or watch tv but if we did that every day it would not only be physically unhealthy, it would also be bad for our mental health. We hope that you are beginning to understand the importance of a balance and that it is starting to make you feel more positive. My activities for Thursday were:

Physical – I took part in a Joe Wicks session. I know this is popular with many of you and I just want to say well done if you do this as it is not easy!

Give Back – I went to the supermarket to do some shopping for my elderly neighbour so she can stay safe at home. This is something lots of us are doing at the moment and I hope this community spirit remains after lockdown as it definitely makes people feel happier.

Self-Care – In Whitebeam, we have been chatting together about the importance of talking to friends and how it makes us feel good. It doesn’t always have to be about feelings or problems, it can just be a general chat about anything. I had a zoom call with some of my friends and I was laughing so loud I woke up my dog who was asleep next to me!

Enjoy the final day of Children’s Mental Health Week and I hope your activities put a huge grin on your face.

I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in yesterday's Wellbeing Wednesday and took the opportunity to complete my jigsaw piece activities during the afternoon. I hope you are having as much fun as I am when doing your activities. The activities are certainly a great way to focus on what makes you positive and it's definitely making me smile and appreciate all of the good things around me. My activities for Wednesday were:

Physical - I put on some of my favourite songs and had a kitchen disco. We danced so much that we were shattered at the end!

Give back - My family love my homemade fresh pasta so I decided to treat them to it for dinner. It takes time to do but it was worth it when I saw the empty plates at the end of the meal.

Self care - I feel incredibly fortunate to have many memories that put a huge smile on my face so I decided to take some time to think about them. To help me, I looked through some of our photo albums, both online ones and physical albums. We did this as a family and it was so lovely to talk about different times together.

Before we look at our jigsaw activities, we should think about taking inspiration from the amazing Captain Sir Tom, who sadly died yesterday. Even though this is incredibly sad news, we should remember how much of a positive man he was. It is natural to have days when we don’t feel as happy and, on those days, we need to remember his words, “Tomorrow will be a good day.”   

There are things we can all do every day though to help change sad days into positive ones that Captain Sir Tom would smile at. Our jigsaw piece activities will help us to get into this habit and we hope you are enjoying completing them. My activities for each jigsaw piece on Tuesday were:

Physical – A member of my class said we could time ourselves running up and down stairs, either in our homes or steps outside. This was definitely an activity that increased my heart rate and such a simple exercise to do, it was a great suggestion! You could do this too but you might like to make it a little easier by walking up and down the stairs in a set time. Please remember to take care when doing it though!

Give Back – My daughter loves having her nails painted but she finds it very tricky to paint with her non-writing hand (like most people) so I volunteered to paint them for her. It was super to see the smile on her face when they were finished.

Self-Care – I got out an old jigsaw and began to put it together. It’s 1000 pieces and full of detail so I didn’t get it all finished in one sitting but it was very relaxing and took my mind off everything as I did it.

I was then able to colour in another three of my jigsaw pieces and it is starting to look incredibly colourful. Don’t forget to colour in your pieces ready to share with your teacher at the end of the week.

Remember that today is Wellbeing Wednesday and that means no devices from lunchtime onwards. You could complete your jigsaw pieces during this time if you like. We will be sharing what we get up to on Facebook on Thursday morning.

 As you know, from Monday’s Values assembly, this week is Children’s Mental Health week, and we are completing activities to support and promote positive mental health and wellbeing. Each day, I (Mrs Jeffries) will share my activities with you and they may even give you a few ideas for what you could do. My activities for each jigsaw piece on Monday were:

Physical - I went on a walk in the cold with my dog and I felt both exhausted and exhilarated after it.

Give Back - My sister is home schooling her children while she is working from home (like so many amazing parents are doing right now). Both her and her husband had important meetings, so I volunteered to ‘virtually babysit’ her children. We had a scavenger hunt over Zoom which ended up with lots of loud laughter and having a sweet treat very close to dinnertime. The three of us had a lot of fun.

Self-Care - One of my Christmas presents was a penguin face mask and hair treatment to pamper myself with so I decided to use them to look after myself. My family could not stop laughing at the cartoon penguin on my face but it was impossible for me to do the same when I was wearing it!

I was then able to colour in three of my jigsaw pieces and it certainly put a smile on my face. I reflected on how to help others, I felt refreshed and I had fun, it was so lovely to do things that made me feel happy and made others feel the same. Don’t forget to colour in your pieces ready to share with your teacher at the end of the week. We are looking forward to hearing about all of the super things you are doing and then we will be able to share some as ideas for future Wellbeing Wednesdays.

During February, we will be focusing on the value of 'Positivity'!

We are hearing a lot at the moment about when 'testing positive' is a bad thing... but what does it mean to think positively and make positive choices?

We will talk about: 

- always ‘looking on the bright side of life’

- noticing the good things, the good people, the good moments

- knowing that difficult times won’t be here forever

- choosing to do things which help our positive wellbeing

Take a look at our introduction assembly here!