Schools across South Yorkshire have been taking part in activities and exercises as part of the national Children’s Mental Health Week.
Children’s Mental Health Week is a week hosted by Place2Be, A national children’s charity, to raise awareness and understanding for children and young peoples mental health. Over 1350 schools have signed up, including multiple schools across Yorkshire.
The theme for this year was Let’s Connect, encouraging children, young people, parents and carers to make meaningful connections with others in a healthy meaningful way.
As part of the campaign, Task Master have teamed up with the charity and are setting daily tasks for children to complete. Getting involved are the pupils at Aston Lodge Primary School who have been taking up the challenges. The tasks include making self-portraits, choreographing dances and creating rainbows.
A spokesperson from the school said: “All the children have got on board with it. They’ve all really enjoyed the activities. The mental health team (With Me in Mind) have been in to work with the children and they enjoyed working with us as well.”
With Me In Mind is a local NHS team who offer advice and support to schools and young people in Rotherham, Doncaster and North Lincolnshire. For Children’s Mental Health Week, they talked to the children about how to connect with themselves and others.
Other schools taking part include Ecclesall Primary School and Killamarsh Junior School, who shared how their pupils are getting stuck into the activities on their social media. They have been making rainbows, connecting with other classes, and dressing to express.
Place2Be is a children’s mental health charity who have been working in schools for over 25 years, and launched Children’s Mental Health week 8 years ago. It’s ambassadors include Kit Conner and Dermot O’Leary and has Catherine, Princess of Wales as a patron.
Abi Aldridge, a spokesperson for the charity, said: “Beyond the week, Place2Be deliver mental health services to schools, including multiple schools in South Yorkshire. We launched the week because we realised there was a big gap in awareness and understanding, and this week is to raise that awareness and understanding.”
She said 1 in 6 children or young people have a problem with a mental health condition so “we need to be doing more”.
Aldridge said that research show 50% of adults that have mental health conditions first experienced symptoms by the age of 14.
“We need to intervene early, we need children and young people to be able to talk about their feelings, to know where to go to get support, we need the adults around children to know how to recognise the signs.”
Place2Be offer advice and resources for parents and carers that are worried about their children’s mental wellbeing, especially advice that falls in the theme of Let’s Connect. They suggest connecting with your child in ways such as talking about their friends and their interests, finding time to connect as a family and trying to resolve conflict and re-connecting after moments of disconnection.
More advice can be found at parentingsmart.org.uk, Place2Be’s site for parents and carers.