school staff
supporting yOUR STUDENTS
CONTENTS
School life following the pandemic
Think HEATH Curriculum
Confidential Chat
0-11 years COVID Changes, Challenges & Champions
Inspiring resources
Faith & Mental Health
My Socials
School life following the Coronavirus pandemic…
As I’m writing this, it’s April 2020 and we’re in self-isolation. I’m receiving multiple messages from parents/teachers/teenagers/health and social care professionals about the differences in how the children they know or care for are processing this complete shift in lifestyle.
This experience will likely take YEARS for children to process. They will have all had a different experience of life during the Coronavirus pandemic and how that has affected them in the short and long term will need to be processed. They need to be given time to accept and understand what has been happening within their mind and body, and given the opportunity to speak about this.
Horrifically, we know that calls to the UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, Refuge, have risen by around 66% since the start of lockdown (fact checked 03.07.2020.) Therefore, the mental and physical health of the children within your care at school will vary dramatically. For some, you will be able to visibly see their scars. For many, you will have no idea about the physical and mental scars they now carry.
Some children will return to school grieving, some will return with uncertainty, some will return with fears, some will return with increased anxiety, some will return with extreme sadness, some will return with a lack of security, some will return with low/no self-worth, some will return with low/no confidence, some will return following experiencing abuse for the first time, some will return following increased abuse, some will return after having a break from experiencing abuse but not sure whether that will start again when they begin to see their perpetrator again.
Some children will return to school after experiencing one of the best times of their lives. They will have made short and long term memories that fill them with happiness, love, strength, acceptance, confidence and self-worth. These children need just as much time to process life during and after the Coronavirus pandemic as those who struggled through that time.
When your children mix back at school, their interactions will continually stir a whole range of emotions between them all.
You will see a mixture of behaviours.
The most important thing to remember is that behind EVERY emotion there is a reason for it. A child hitting/shouting/scrunching up another child’s work etc. has happened for a reason. You might not have seen the reason. You might not have heard the reason. There might seem like absolutely no logical reason behind that behaviour whatsoever - but there will be, and it will be absolutely vital that you find out that reason.
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MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH 52 WEEK CURRICULUM
CALLED ‘THINK HEALTH CURRICULUM’
0-17 years Think HEALTH Curriculum playlist
Children and Teens - with all that said, Think HEALTH offers a mental and emotional package to give you the knowledge, tools, and additional support needed to be able to positively support, teach and care for the children at your school or home.
Adults - Think HEALTH Curriculum takes small daily steps to look at all areas of your life and help you identify where and how you could feel healthier. It’s available on YouTube with one super short video uploaded Monday - Friday. It’s available to follow as a family or individually, it’s completely up to you.
SCHOOL - There will be a lot of children who won’t watch Think HEALTH Curriculum for a variety of reasons. If you can incorporate watching this 2 minute video each day and having some time to either reflect on it or you giving your responses/naturally chatting about it will have a huge impact on the overall mental health of your school.
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Students & their care givers
Exactly the same as you - for any confidential (and anonymous if they wish) support - students/parents/caregivers can click the link below and leave an email address for me to reply to if they’d like a reply.
They can send how they’re thinking/feeling without wanting a reply as a way of getting thoughts out of their head if they wish, this service is to give them the opportunity to talk.
(This link is also on your students’ page for them to access.)
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* The link below is provided in the page for your students - I’ve linked it here in case you also wanted to read through *
0-11year olds during and following the COVID pandemic
Click the link below to take you to info, poems, images & videos for 0-11year olds….
inspiring resources
Heads Together
The Duchess of Cambridge launched ‘Mentally Healthy Schools’ in 2018. Their resources are brilliant and can be found here:
YOUNG MINDS
Young Minds have some brilliant school resources, click the link below to take you to them.
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FAITH & MENTAL HEALTH
I’ve created a different page for this as it’s something I’ll be continually adding to. If you have faith in God/are curious about it, I’ll be writing in small chunks about how the Bible contains A LOT (everything?!) we need in order to look after our mental health.
* @lisa_thinkhealth is random posts and stories about my life.
* @thinkhealthvillage is focused on mental health and faith.
* @Thinkhealth.me is a mix of both Insta accounts plus anything shared from other Facebook pages.
