This week, as part of Children’s Mental Health Week, Year 6 have been exploring the theme of wellbeing and thinking carefully about what helps them feel supported, calm and happy, as well as the things that sometimes challenge their mental health.

We began by reflecting on the positive influences that support our wellbeing:

• Activities that bring us joy
• Hobbies and personal interests
• Spending time with family and friends
• Pets and the comfort they bring

We also spoke openly about the challenges that can affect how we feel, such as:

• Stress and worries
• Friendship problems
• Moments when things feel overwhelming

To bring these ideas to life, the children created side‑profile silhouette artworks, filling their silhouettes with patterns, colours, symbols and drawings that represented the things that support their wellbeing, alongside the things that can challenge it. The result was a powerful and thoughtful collection of artwork showing the “busy places” inside our minds.

We ended our session with the reminder:

“Our minds are busy places. Everyone has things they enjoy and things they find tricky — and that’s normal.”

Throughout the week, Year 6 have been trying different activities designed to support their wellbeing, including:

• Mindfulness colouring
• Reading for pleasure
• Physical exercise
• Playing games with friends

These simple strategies have helped the children find moments of calm and connection during their school day.

Year 6 have shown great honesty, creativity and maturity this week, and we are incredibly proud of the way they have reflected on their mental health and the strategies that help them feel their best.