Celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week at St Mary’s- 3-7th February 2025
The week started with our wonderful Eco team leading an inspiring and information whole school assembly about the importance of recognising our emotions to have healthy minds and bodies. The theme of this year’s Mental Health Week was ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself.’
The Eco team planned a fun-filled week of games and activities to explore our emotions and to help us grow as healthy and confident individuals.
Please see the activities below:-
Monday- Meet your emotions Monday- learning about and valuing all emotions and feelings. Tuesday– Talk Tuesday – learning about the Hippocampus and sharing special memories and emotions. Wednesday– Walk Wednesday- taking a walk to enjoy the outdoors and help process our feelings and emotions; good for both the mind and body. Thursday- Feel it Thursday listening to music and playing ‘Emotion Freeze’ to match your our emotions. Friday– Feel Free Friday dressing in a colour to match our emotions.
Helping us Understand and Manage our Emotions using the ‘Zones of Regulation‘
The Zones of Regulation is a whole school strategy used in St Mary’s to provide a simple, effective way for children to recognise and manage their emotions throughout the school day. Using four colour-coded zones—blue, green, yellow, and red—our children learn to identify how they are feeling and develop strategies to recognise and regulate their emotions.
Staff have implemented very creative ways for children to recognise and reflect on their emotional needs using strategies such as ‘high fives’, lollipop sticks, emotions charts and ‘Plickers’, for example. These simple but effective check-ins create a safe space for children to express how they feel, allowing teachers to provide appropriate support and foster a positive, caring environment where every child feels valued, cared for and listened to.