The children’s wellbeing has always been at the absolute centre of everything that we do at Alverton. We have a whole-school focus on children’s mental health and wellbeing through “The Five Ways to Wellbeing”. This is a set of really simple actions everyone can take which have been shown to improve wellbeing. They are easy to remember and, as well as making you feel better in the moment, can also help build good mental health for the future.
There are five principles:
Connect – connecting with the people around us is a great way to remind ourselves that we’re important and valued by others.
Be Active – we know that there’s a link between staying active and positive mental health and wellbeing and by regularly engaging in some form of exercise we can look after our mental and physical health at the same time.
Take Notice – taking notice of our thoughts, emotions and surroundings is a great way to stay present and pay attention to our needs while taking notice of things we’re grateful for, big or small, is a great way to boost our mood and appreciate our surroundings.
Keep Learning – learning new things is a good way to boost our self confidence, which in turn improves our mental health and wellbeing.
Give – research has found a link between doing good things for other people and an increase in wellbeing.
We have spent a lot of time in school talking about the Five Ways to Wellbeing with the children and how they can have a positive impact on our mental health and wellbeing. There has been a lot of research by professionals who have identified these five simple things which can help everyone, not just those struggling with their mental health and, at the moment, it is more important than ever to build our resilience and boost our wellbeing.
Use the links on the left to find out more and to see how the whole school is getting involved in the Five Ways to Wellbeing.