This week has been National Children’s Mental Health Week and our theme of the week has been GROWING TOGETHER. As a school, we hold children’s wellbeing at the heart of all that we do. Happy children do better in life. Just like trees and plants need support to help them grow, children need support to help them grow emotionally. They need their parents and carers, their teachers, and their friends. Children often need others to help us to believe in themselves, to keep going, and to try doing things a bit differently. Sometimes children feel like they are growing and developing and doing really well. For example, they might do well in their lessons at school and feel like they have good friends and are being successful.

But at other times they might feel like they are not growing and developing like they want to. They might get upset because they are finding their school work difficult or have fallen out with their friends. These feelings are very ordinary and that even when they feel like things are not going right in their lives, they can continue to develop and grow – just like the tree can grow even when the conditions aren’t quite right. Challenges and setbacks can help children to grow and adapt. Trying new things can help them to move beyond their comfort zone into a new realm of possibility and potential.