Buxton school holds special mental health awareness day

Staff and students at Fairfield Infant and Nursery School welcomed visitors to the school earlier this month as they learned how to take care of their mental health and wellbeing.

Sarah Humpleby, the mental health and wellbeing lead for the school, said: “It was such a brilliant day and I think everyone took away something positive from it."

Following the five ways to wellbeing, the school welcomed sports groups to get the children moving, yoga classes to allow the pupils to connect with themselves, the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust to help them take notice of their senses and environment and Creeping Toad to learn new stories.

There was also an element of giving too where children raised money for a pupil in Burbage who is losing his sight and has made himself a bucket list of things he wants to see.

Sarah said: “The past couple of years through the pandemic have really impacted on children’s mental health.

"There is a lot of talk about older children’s mental health but the younger ones haven’t come out of this unscathed. They missed out on seeing family, and new friends too.”

Sarah said that as the children were under seven the school focuses on identifying feelings.

She said: “If we can give them the tools to spot when they are feeling sad or angry or happy and then how to deal with this we are laying the foundations for being able to cope with these bigger feelings as they get older.”

The school recently won an award for how it prioritised mental health and wellbeing for everyone.

Sarah said: “We try and embed it into everything we are doing so if we are outside we mention to the children this is one of the five ways they can make themselves feel better when we do PE and run around we talk about it then too.

“Normally when we plan big days like this with no actual teaching it can leave you feeling very exhausted but I left feeling energised which just goes to show how important it is do things which look after our mental health regularly.”

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