Over St. John's CE Primary SchoolHead Teacher Blog: 5th February 2021
Date: 5th Feb 2021 @ 1:42pm
This week, I am not going to mention the C word at all!
This week has been Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing week and the theme this year was Express Yourself. Staff tried to add a range of activities to the learning this week to support the theme.
You will be aware that on Wednesday we dedicated the day to ‘Wellbeing Wednesday,’ where a range of activities were completed both at home and at school to encourage children to ‘express themselves’ whilst also trying to have some downtime from our screens. Some children have spent time outside doing outdoor maths challenges and nature scavenger hunts; there have been calm art projects taking place involving mindfulness colouring and creating calm forests; one class had a pick and mix of wellbeing activities to choose from; two other classes chose a theme of dragons creating observational drawings of dragon eyes and then using these drawings to help design their own dragon eye which they then made out of clay and other children created junk models of dragons.
Many children talked about what they could do that would help them to express themselves in a way that supports their happiness.
It was so lovely to see the photographs sent in from home of all the wonderful things that people were getting up to and from the messages received, so many of you felt a wonderful sigh of relief to be doing something a bit different instead!
All in all, the children across both the school and at home had so much fun and certainly found ways to express themselves and take time to think about their own mental health and wellbeing.
#WakeUpWednesday
This week was Children’s Mental Health Week and with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic still very much being felt around the world, the event has come at an especially relevant time. So which online activities can help to boost young people’s self-esteem? And how can make sure they’re doing it safely? Find out with National Online Safety’s free #WakeUpWednesday guide.
On a similar theme, don’t forget that next Tuesday, 9 February, is Safer Internet Day. Take a big step to reinforcing your online safety by downloading National Online Safety’s app from Google Play or the App Store, and put a wealth of resources at your fingertips.
Confirmed Dates for the Spring Term 2021
Friday 12th February: School closes for half term at usual bubble times
Monday 22nd February: School closed for INSET
Tuesday 23rd February: School re-opens for those currently in school at usual bubble times
Thursday 1st April: School closes for Easter with bubble closure times as follows:
Blakemere at 1:45pm
Linmere at 1:45pm
Oakmere at 1:50pm
Delamere at 1.55pm
Sandymere at 2pm
Hatchmere at 2.05pm
Please remember that your child’s class teachers are only at the end of an e mail all day. We would prefer that you contact them via this method so that, for safety reasons, they leave their bubble environment as little as possible and avoid sharing the phone in the area that Mrs Rutherford is working.
As last week, thank you so much for all the positive messages that we continue to receive from so many of you. Every staff member gets to see every message and we really appreciate that we are in your thoughts and as always, you continue to be in ours.
Take care,
Mrs E Snowdon