Mental Health Awareness

When the world marked World Mental Health Day on 10th October, Treloar School students and staff extended the exploration of the subject and discussed the importance of mental health during their lessons throughout the week.

Our Director of Music, Jocelyn Watkins, introduced meditation/yoga to her classes and started the assembly with a mini meditation session for both staff and students gathered in the Pike Hall.

What can we do to help our own mental health?

Each School Team was asked to discuss and prepare answers to what we can do to help our own mental health. All students came prepared to the assembly and shared their ideas on what to do when we want to feel better. Some of the answers included: spending time with friends and family, playing with a dog, dancing or eating chocolate and cake.

Brigit Ryan, our Deputy Head of School, added to that and provided staff and students with five other strategies that are worth remembering:

Emotional Management is about how well everyone manages and expresses their emotions and feelings.

Attention and Awareness is about how well can we all focus, and what we choose to pay attention to.

Relationships is about how well everyone builds and supports positive social relationships and connections.

Habits and Goals are that actions you take help build and maintain strategies for wellbeing and protect mental health.

Strengths are the things we do well that help our wellbeing and choose to do often.

Strength – the focus of the assembly

After discussion about ways to improve our physical and emotional wellbeing, Mrs Watkins posed a question to the students: “What am I good at?”, asking the students to think of their strengths and encouraged them to share their answers during the assembly.

To close the theme of strength and kindness, Leon, School student, read out The Lion and The Mouse fable that was accompanied by illustrations of the key scenes from the story.