MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK
12th -16th May
Mental Health Awareness Week was marked across the school with a range of activities and sessions. It provided an opportunity for us as a community to reflect on our own mental health and wellbeing through the theme of COMMUNITY.
Over the course of the week, each form had a PCT session focused on wellbeing. The whole school also had ‘Drop Everything and Reflect’; this meant that the whole school had 2 mins per day to stop and take the opportunity to move reflect on an aspect of wellbeing and, as a class, think together about practical ways to improve wellbeing.
Over the course of the week, the Year 10 Wellbeing Ambassadors organised a full and exciting programme of lunchtime events for students in Years 7-9; this included everything from Just Dance, Photo booth and Mindful Colouring to name a few!
Year 8 organised a Mental Health Awareness Week bake sale, which was very successful. It was fantastic to see such an array of creative and tasty bakes!
Congratulations to Soraiya 8R, Clara 8E & Aphrodite 8H who took 1st, 2nd & 3rd place in the bake sale. A big well done and thank you to everyone who contributed.
The week also included a selection of smaller group activities this year, such as meeting Lulu, the Wellbeing Dog from the Mayhew animal charity, learning the basics of Sign Language with Raissa, a year 8 student. Students and staff together enjoyed how to crochet and play chess.
As well as activities for each year group, we also had new and smaller group activities this year, such as ‘Uno fest’ and the ‘learn how to’ series, which included learning how to crochet, led by Year 10 Wellbeing Ambassadors, playing chess and basic sign language taught by Raissa in 8T. But one of the key highlights of the week was meeting Lulu, the Wellbeing Dog from the Mayhew animal charity.
The Week finished with everyone wearing a splash of green on Friday to raise money and awareness for Mental Health Awareness Week.
By Head Girl - Olivia Cummins
Students’ Favourite moments from Mental health Awareness Week
One of my favourite activities was Mindful Colouring during lunchtime. Many students found the activity a perfect way to raise awareness for Mental Health Awareness Week and have fun as well! Mindfulness colouring was a stress-free and relaxing environment where the girls were supervised by year 10 wellbeing ambassadors led by Gabriella C. Many of the participants really enjoyed it as it allowed them to take a quiet moment to think and decompress. Mindfulness colouring on Monday was a great start to Mental Health Week, and I really enjoyed participating.
At lunchtime, in the dance studio, we had Just Dance for Year 9, an active, fun and enjoyable activity for Mental Health Awareness week. This was led by Chidimma and a group of year 10 volunteers. It was an incredibly creative way to get girls involved this week as it demonstrated all the positives of movement and its effect on your mental health. Just Dance was a really exciting activity to start of Mental Health Awareness Week.
Kassandra Chalepi- De Souza and Olivia Cummings Year 10
Mindfulness colouring was enjoyable due to the relaxing music that calmed me down. It unlocked my creativity and was a fun experience I would love to do again.
Clara Hrab Year 8
In preparation for the Year 8 Bake Off, I baked a two-layer (eight-inch) vanilla cake decorated with light green buttercream and light pink flowers. It took two nights to prepare: one night to bake and another night to decorate when it was cool. I was very happy and proud of my final product. When I saw the other bakes at the competition, I knew a lot of others had put in so much effort too and there were so many pretty offerings.
When I'm baking, I feel at peace because it is very quiet and relaxing.
I find it really helps my mental health, not just because it's my favourite hobby, but I also enjoy watching how it turns out......it's all trial and error!
Soraiya Jacquens Year 8
Last week was mental health awareness week and there were so many activities that I could take part in. Every morning before PCT, my friends and I went to the Power Up Sessions in the playground, run by the Year 10 GCSE PE students. These sessions were so much fun, they helped us produce lots of energy that would help us in our learning. We also went to some of the other activities during the week, such as the ‘Uno-Fest’ and the Photo Booth. I had so much fun and I am looking forward to taking part in this again next year!
Mishal Herwitker Year 7
Thank you for supporting our activities this week. All money raised by the girls will go to various charities with a Mental Health focus.
