Children's Mental Health Week 2021

As a school, we took part in Children’s Mental Health Week from 1^st to 5^th February.

Our amazing students shared their creativity on the theme of ‘Express Yourself’. You can see all the daily messages from Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton and a selection of the wonderful ways our students have of keeping positive and expressing themselves below:

Happy Friday - 5th February 2021

Happy Friday! We have had the best week this week, looking through all your wonderful creations to promote Children's Mental Health Week. Keep them coming in and we will continue to show them throughout the day. 

As today is the last day of celebrations, we thought we would end with a very important message from our Pastoral team. It is vital that you download the presentation from your email, turn your sound up high, read each slide carefully and let the PowerPoint presentation play out. 

Or you can follow the link below to the presentation and run it as a slideshow:

Message from the Pastoral Team

Take care and have a great day, 

Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton.

 

Terrific Thursday - 4th February 2021

Welcome to Terrific Thursday and day 4 of our celebrations of Children's Mental Health Week. Please see below some brilliant examples of how fellow students have been expressing themselves whilst promoting positive mental health during lockdown.

Thursday afternoon update:

This week, we seem to have created a theme of photography and art as our outlet for mental health promotion! 

Please see below some wonderful photographs taken by Lois Bowl and Ava Moys, both Year 8, whilst out on their daily exercise during lockdown. One thing I am very mindful of when speaking to you all, is the promotion of your physical health as well as mental health and, getting outside and having fresh air is a great way to do that. 

Striking the balance of schoolwork and 'down time' is very important and completing schoolwork gives you a great sense of achievement. You then need to get rid of that excess energy that has built up during the day, that you would have spent in school. I am sure lots of dogs are enjoying extra walks at the moment, which is a perfect excuse for you all to spend quality time with your family while gaining physical health. Studies have shown that physical exercise also reduces symptoms of mental health considerably. Check out the BBC Children In Need website, where you will find a link to 'Get active' with Joe Wicks. There is no excuse then, if the weather is bad! Get active! 

https://www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/resources/new-joe-wicks-active-8-minute-workout-3-cards/

Take Care and see you tomorrow for our final day of Children's Mental Health Week,

Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton

Thursday Morning

A student in Year 11 has expressed her thoughts by drawing what is on her mind:

 

A Year 10 student thoroughly enjoys baking her favourite Oreo cake, as a way of redirecting her thoughts and promoting her positive mental health - plus her bakes are delicious! 

Finally, Alice Cobban in Year 11 and Fraser Jump in Year 8 have sent us some great pieces of photography, that they have taken while out during lockdown on their daily exercise. 

 

 

Today, we would like you to look at this fantastic piece of dance expression, performed at this year's Britain's Got Talent final. I am sure you will recognise the dance crew. The members are perfect examples of inspirational figures, who show diversity through their creative art. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzFNKFitHjw

Take Care,

Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton

Wonderful Wednesday! - Wednesday 3rd February

Welcome to Wonderful Wednesday! We must start by saying how bowled over we are to receive such amazing displays of your expressive activities. Please see below a student's utterly brilliant artwork. She has said that painting is something she really enjoys doing because it keeps her focused and is relaxing at the same time. This the importance of creativity - it gives you time away from everyday life, takes you to your 'happy place', and allows you to express who you are! A great example of positive mental health!

On the theme of art, I thought it would be good to feature a young inspirational artist, who used art in the last lockdown to express her feelings towards her teachers and friends at school. Thank you, Miss Ward, for the heads up! This is Rowan - click on the link below to read her bio and see how she started her love of street art.

http://rowanbriggssmith.co.uk/draw/missing-you/<

Have a wonderful day and keep those entries coming in!

 

Take Care,

Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton

Terrific Tuesday - Tuesday 2nd February 

Firstly, a massive THANK YOU to everyone who has taken part in our celebration of Children's Mental Health Week so far. We have seen such creativity and thoughts going into how you express yourself as an individual.

The images below were sent in by Aimee Hudson, in Year 11, who is looking forward to a career in makeup art. These images show how Aimee likes to think creatively and use makeup as her expression, in these current times of uncertainty. Well done Aimee. A wonderful talent!

Childrens' Mental Health Week - Tuesday

Keep your awesome entries coming in! 

Today, we would like you to check out George the poet, using the link below. George is a great example of how you can express yourself, and be seen and heard in an appropriate way, getting your point across whilst creating positive influence on others. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAJUbk8rkC0

Take Care,

Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton.

Happy Monday! - Monday 1st February 2021

This week is Children's Mental Health Week, the theme being 'Express Yourself'! These weeks are always our favourite part of the school year, as they allow us to see the wonderful ideas you all have, to celebrate your positive mental health and wellbeing. Times are hard for us all at the moment and, as Mrs Wilson mentioned last week, we need to dig deep - it won't last forever! 

As the theme of this year's celebration is 'Express Yourself', Miss Warburton and I have lots of tricks up our sleeve to enable you to show us how you express yourself. Each day we will be sending you a link of an inspirational young person and what medium use to express themselves.  "Express Yourself" is about finding creative ways to share feelings, thoughts and ideas, through things like art, writing, music, dance and doing things that make you feel good.  Being able to express yourself is not about being the best at something or putting on a performance for others. It is about finding a way to show how you are feeling than can help you feel good about yourself.

We would like you to show us how you have used your creativity to express yourself and support your mental health. Whatever you enjoy doing, whether it is art, creating models, pictures, or sculptures, sewing, knitting, singing, baking, gardening, dancing, taking photographs - we want to see how you celebrate your creativity. If you send us a photograph or film of your creative activities, we would love to share them with other members of the Balshaw's community. Hopefully, all your fantastic efforts will help others by making them smile, and you never know they too might be inspired to support their own mental health by using their creativity.

When sending your examples please say if you would be happy for us to share them on our website.

Today, we want you to listen to the link below. This is 21-year-old Ruti. Ruti won the 7th series of 'The Voice' and has gone on to build an extremely successful career in the music industry. She has used her artistic expression to bring out this charity single 'Lovely Day', that she is covering with Billy Ocean and the Young Voices Choir.  You will find her on Instagram @rutimusic and see what an inspirational young woman she is and how she chooses to express herself. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIDuIfbg1Tg

We also wanted to share this fabulous video with you from the Duchess of Cambridge, who is a Royal Patron for Children's Mental Health Week https://youtu.be/PEBURwEL9HM

Have a lovely day!!

Mrs Seedall and Miss Warburton.