5 Practical and Meaningful Activities for Children's Mental Health Week

Children's Mental Health Week (6th-12th Feburury 2023) and many schools UK-wide are busy making preparations. For many, this week is often used as a springboard to help launch their school's approach to developing mental health and wellbeing in their children and wider school community. This is even more important now due to impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the cost of living crisis is having on Children's Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Planning your children's mental health week activities

We at Worth-it are dedicated to helping schools develop positive mental health and wellbeing. Therefore, we asked our team for their top tips on how you can best prepare for Children's Mental Health Week. Here are our top 5 to ensure it's a success!

This weeks them for Children's Mental Health Week is Let's Connect. Let's Connect is about making meaningful connections for all, during Children's Mental Health Week - and beyond.

1. Be clear in your approach

Wellbeing and mental health can be very confusing and overwhelming to both children and staff without a clear approach. Holding an SLT meeting will help you produce a clear plan for the week and allow you to decide on your main focus. Pick up to 3 simple things that you as a school can focus on and are easy to implement to get everyone on the same page. Use a wellbeing framework to help you organise the wellbeing strategies and mental health activities you want to use during the week.

2. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare

We all know that teacher workload is huge, so make sure that you give yourself enough time to plan. Not only will this give you time to be creative and give the week the consideration it deserves, but it'll also mean that you're more relaxed going into the week knowing that everything is organised.

3. Collaborate with other schools

Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming trying to organise a whole school event, never mind when it lasts for a week! Try contacting other schools near you so that you can collaborate and share ideas. Not only will this help spread good practice, but it'll also develop networks and relationships between schools that can be long-lasting.

4. Make mental health and wellbeing visible

Whatever you're planning on doing, make sure that it's visible not only to the children but to the whole staff team. One of the key aims for Children's Mental Health Week is to increase awareness about mental health and wellbeing, so what easier way to do this than by talking about it in the lead up to the week in staff meetings, assemblies and in classrooms. Simple things like making wellbeing displays or placing posters in key areas around the school or running a range of practical wellbeing activities can help start conversations about wellbeing amongst the whole school community.

5. Ask your older pupils to be actively involved

Asking the older pupils in your school to be actively involved in driving Children's Mental Health Week is a great way to ensure the week is a success. Not only will it give them a feeling of empowerment and increased voice, but its also more likely to create ideas that the pupils will enjoy and want to be involved in. This will also help strengthen the pupil community around the school, allowing them to be more supportive of each other.‍

Children's Mental Health Week Wellbeing Activities

We went back to our team and asked them for their most practical and meaningful activities that schools could implement during Children's Mental Health Week. Here are our top 5 all based on Positive Psychology the science of wellbeing!

Check out our mini-training video on Ideas for Children's Mental Health Week 2022 and the theme 'Growing together' on YouTube or read on for more practical ideas!

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1. Gratitude Jars

Something as simple as putting a glass jar in your classroom can have such a huge impact! Ask the children to write down things that they are grateful for and place them in the jar throughout the week.  

This small, but powerful activity helps children to think positively, which is great for developing their wellbeing. For an added twist, why not make it a competition; with the first class to fill their jar winning!

2. Undercover Kindness

Give each child the name of another child in their class. Make sure that they don't tell each other who they have been given! The aim of this activity is to encourage the children to be kind to the person whose name they have been given before the end of the week without being found out.

At the end of the week, ask every child who they think had been kind to them. Not only will this reveal if they had been found out, but it will also show the children just how many others have been kind to them not as part of the activity. Doing this activity helps to build positive relationships between peers as well as develop positive thinking. Discover more kindness activities for building connection here

3. Savour the Moment Challenge

Rather than the traditional raisin or chocolate savouring task, ask the children to think of one or more extremely positive moments from their past. Once they have done this, depending on their age you can get them to draw the moment or find a picture that reminds them of it. This activity helps to reduce negativity bias and develops their ability to find the positives in situations.    

4. Wellbeing Walk

It might sound simple, but going outside is good for your wellbeing. Regardless of the weather! Why not use part of the school day to take the children for a wellbeing walk and talk. Being in nature and noticing the seasons helps individuals to focus on the present, which can reduce anxiety and develop wellbeing in the process. Walking and talking is a great and simple way of building connection.

5. Go Home Laughing

It's so important that children not only enjoy their day at school but that they go home afterwards with a smile on their face. One way of doing this is to ask the children to share/think of one funny thing that they heard, saw or did during the day.  

Doing this will help them to look back on the school day in a positive light and go home happy. Not only can doing this help develop wellbeing but it can also help children view their school more positively, and promote a positive school culture.

Gain Practical Wellbeing Activities

We hope that you found our practical and meaningful activities for Children's Mental Health Week useful. We at Worth-it are dedicated to helping schools develop positive mental health and wellbeing.

Download our Wellbeing Activity Booklet for 6 different wellbeing activities for you to use.

Make sure your download our FREE mental health poster to use during children's mental health week.

We work with schools to provide online training and wellbeing tools and resources through our Practical Wellbeing Resource Toolkit.

If you would like to find out more about our approach to supporting schools to develop children and young people's mental health and wellbeing access our FREE Introductory workshop.