The children in year 5 and 6 had a fantastic mental health workshop today with the wonderful Darren. He began the workshop by asking the children what they thought the term 'mental health' meant and explained that many people are reluctant to talk about it as they often see it as something negative. He used lots of examples to show the children how positive/good mental health allows people to achieve their dreams.
In one activity, the children were asked what Beyonce, Lionel Messi and Daniel Radcliffe all have in common. The children gave their suggestions and then Darren told them the back stories of the difficulties and knock-backs they had in their careers and how they showed resilience and determination to achieve their goals. The children really related to this as they are familiar with these celebrities.
Darren finished the session by asking them to think of positive affirmations they could tell themselves to promote positive mental health and completed some breathing exercises with them. All children were fully engaged throughout the session and came up with some fantastic affirmations which Darren is turning into a poster and bringing back for the session next week.
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