Let's connect- Mental Health

This year Place2Be's theme for Children's Mental Health Week is 

Let’s Connect. 

"Let’s Connect is about making meaningful connections. Human beings thrive in communities, and this connection is vital for our wellbeing. When we have healthy connections – to family, friends and others – this can support our mental health and our sense of wellbeing. And when our need for rewarding social connections is not met, we can sometimes feel isolated and lonely – which can have a negative impact on our mental health. 

As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child’s mental health."

There are lots of resources for families here- https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/families/#resources

And lots of tips and advice for parents and carers  here-  https://parentingsmart.place2be.org.uk/

We have lots of earlier posts on this blog with advice, tips and activities to support mental health and wellbeing. Simply go to the search tool and type in 'mental health' and / or 'wellbeing.'

This Friday (10th February), the Coffee Morning will be about The Zones of Regulation. We use these in school, and encourage the children to use them outside of school too, to understand their emotions and regulate their responses. Please come along if you'd like to find out more, 9-10am in the Partnership Unit, on the corner of Bannockburn Road and Plumstead High Street.
 

Reception - The Colour Monster

 

We have been exploring the story ‘The Colour Monster’ by Anna Llenas, to discuss different emotions. The Colour Monster visited our class and asked whether we could help him as he was feeling muddled. He left colourful footprints around our classroom.

We have discussed a variety of feelings and spoke about how we feel in different situations. We shared our views with our friends. We have learnt a number of songs linked to feelings including, ‘I’ve Got a Grumpy Face’ and ‘If You’re Happy and you Know It’. We learnt Makaton signs for colours and feelings.

 

We have linked our learning to Zones of Regulation. We sorted feelings into the different zones and discussed strategies we could use to return to the green zone. We acted out different scenarios and identified which zone each person was experiencing.

 

We have participated in a range of activities linked to the Colour Monster such as using different art techniques to add colour to a monster template, matching colours to the correct feeling and mixing colours to make our desired colour. 

Zones of Regulation

As you know, Bannockburn uses The Zones of Regulation to help everyone achieve their best.

As a recap- What are The Zones of Regulation?
The Zones of Regulation help children to achieve an optimal state of alertness for the activity that they are doing. The Zones concept helps children to categorise their emotions into four coloured categories (blue, green, yellow and red), this helps to open a channel of communication, self-reflection and self-regulation that children often find difficult.

Children gain the understanding the all feelings are ok, but not all behaviours are ok, and they need to learn how to avoid triggers and which tools work for them, in order to stop their behaviours from becoming unacceptable.

There are four zones to describe how your brain and body feel.

BLUE Zone – Your body is running slow, such as when you are tired, sick, sad or bored.

GREEN Zone – Like a green light, you are “good to go.” Your body may feel happy, calm and focused.

YELLOW Zone – This zone describes when you start to lose control, such as when you are frustrated, anxious, worried, silly or surprised. Use caution when you are in this zone.

RED Zone – This zone is for extreme emotions such as anger, terror and aggression. When you are in this zone, you are out of control, have trouble making good decisions and must STOP!

TIPS FOR HANDLING A CHILD IN THE RED ZONE

Safety is first priority

Limit verbals

This is not a teachable moment

Validate the child's feelings

Give them time and space

Designated safe spot

Avoid power struggles

Teach all tools in a calm regulated state

Expressing ourselves for Children's Mental Health Week

Last week, the children learned more about why expressing themselves and their emotions is really important.

On Friday, they 'Dressed to Express' themselves. They may also have pulled some funny faces!

• Can you find yourself or your friends? 
• What emotions can you see being expressed?
• What ZONE do you think they could be in?
• There are lots of children dressed in red. Do you think they are in the red zone, or that red could be a cheerful colour for some?
• Some children don't look very happy. How might they be feeling? Why?

World Mental Health Day

 

On Friday 9th October, we will be celebrating World Mental Health Day.

To do this, children are invited to wear 

one green item, with their school uniform. 

This may be green trousers or skirt, with their school top and jumper. It could be a green T-shirt, with their school jumper and trousers or skirt. For PE this could be green shorts with their white t-shirt, or green trainers with the rest of their school PE kit. This may be a green hair-band, socks or scarf. Year 6 could even wear a green tie with their uniform. 

Linking to our use of The Zones of Regulation, green is the zone we want to be in as much as possible. 

All feelings are okay. 

It is what we DO with our feelings that matter, because not all behaviours are okay!

 

When we notice that our behaviour is not appropriate, it is a clue that we need to find a tool to take care of our zone differently.

Understanding our emotions, and how to respond to them, is vital to our mental health. 

If you want to find out more about looking after the mental health and wellbeing of children and adults, these websites are very helpful-

1. www.mentalhealth.org.uk/your-mental-health
2. www.wheelofwellbeing.org/
3. youngminds.org.uk/
4. www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/wellbeing/wellbeing/
5. www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/improve-mental-wellbeing/

You can also search this blog using the tags 'mental health' or 'wellbeing' for numerous posts with advice, tips and ways to access support. 

The Zones of Regulation

At Bannockburn, we use 

• The Zones of Regulation are four coloured zones that help us to categorise our emotions. Each zone explains how we are feeling.

• When we understand how we feel, we can self-reflect and identify if we need to self-regulate. We want to be in the green zone as much as possible.

• All feelings are ok, but not all behaviours are ok.

• We all need to learn how to avoid triggers and identify which tools work for us, in order to stop behaviours from becoming unacceptable.

• We can also support others- when we understand how others are feeling and which zone they are in; we can identify if they may need some help.

Whilst you are staying safe at home, you can use this time to get everyone you live with to practice identifying which zone they are in. 

Then can everyone try some of these tools and keep track of which work for them?

Children's Mental Health Week 2019

During Children's Mental Health Week, every child in the school participated in activities to support our mental health and well-being. 

Every day the children tried different ways we can help our own mental health and wellbeing. These included; the Daily Mile, meditation, yoga, circle time, tips for sleeping, work on a healthy and balanced diet, helping the environment, volunteering, charity work, team work games, friendship activities...and many more.  

The importance of sleep was a very popular topic. They now all know that they need 10-12 hours sleep every night. 

The children in Reception all listened to the story of 'Peace at Las​t' and then sorted cards into things that would stop Daddy Bear getting to sleep and things that would help him. 

In Year 4, they talked about the importance of sleep and how if can affect both physical and mental health. The children came up with improved bedtime routines, which it is hoped will enable them to relax better and get a longer, better, more fruitful sleep. 

Years 1 and 2 enjoyed work around putting your worries away in a bag, linked to the book 'A huge bag of worries.' They also used word searches, quizzes, crosswords and matching games to help them explore different concepts. 

Year 4 Ash class had a wonderful discussion about what to do when you are feeling low. They had great ideas, such as; six deep breaths, talk to a friend and do something that you love and are good at. 

Lots of the children liked the idea of writing down how you feel and then ripping it up! 

They took away from the discussions that your mental health is as important as your physical health. 

Year 5 practised a variety of ways to deal with their emotions and to calm themselves. They learnt the 'Take 5 breathing' technique and did some yoga at their desks. 

They also discussed how everyone has mental health and that at any point in the day, that moves up and down a scale between good and poor mental health. 

We are using The Zones of Regulation to help children understand different emotions and that it is important that they can recognise these emotions and what to do with them. 

'When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary.' Fred Rogers