Tag Archive for: mental health

Encouraging a healthy lifestyle for students

Our student planners contain a wealth of content to support a healthy lifestyle and mental wellbeing. We work to stimulate student interest and help to navigate them through their school year. We also assist in the meeting of Ofsted judgement criteria. Our student diary content is reviewed and refreshed each year to ensure it remains relevant and engaging for students.

The benefits of a healthy lifestyle on physical and mental wellbeing are well known.

That’s why it’s vital to encourage students to adopt a healthy lifestyle. This is something we cover in both our classic and secondary student planners – offering advice on eating well, exercise and healthy sleep.

How to eat well

In the ‘how to eat well’ section of the planners, we take a look at the types of food you should consume and in what balance.

A good balance is to aim for a 1/3 of your diet consisting of fruit and veg, preferably five portions a day. Another third can be made up of carbohydrates such as potatoes, pasta, rice and bread (wholegrain varieties of these, if possible). The remaining 1/3 should be made up of healthy fats (unsaturated oils and spreads), proteins (meat, eggs, beans, etc.), milk and dairy (cheese and yoghurt, etc.).

The planners also give advice on limiting consumption of food and drinks high in salt, sugar and fat. By explaining food labelling, students can more easily understand which foods are high in calories, saturated fats, salt and sugar and try to control their intake.

For example, the energy in a product is termed as ‘kJ’ and ‘kcal’ calories, while saturates is another word for saturated fat. Reference intakes (RI) are guidelines to show the amount of energy and nutrients needed for a healthy, balanced diet. The %RI will enable you to see how much of your daily healthy maximum is in a portion of that product.

The importance of regular exercise

Classic and secondary student planners also encourage students to include exercise throughout their week.

The planners recommend combining aerobic exercise with strength-building exercises. This is especially important for young adults as it helps to maintain a healthy heart rate and grow muscle and bone strength.

Moderate intensity exercises that raise your heart rate include activities such as cycling, walking, rollerblading, and skateboarding.

Strength-building exercises, including running, climbing, gymnastics, and team sports such as netball, football and rugby, can help to build strength. Playing tennis, squash and badminton are also good strength exercises.

Getting a good night’s sleep

A good sleep routine plays a vital role in a student’s mental wellbeing. When you’re studying, a lack of sleep can have a negative impact on your work.

It’s recommended that teenagers try to get a minimum of 8 to 9 hours sleep on a school night. To achieve this, try to avoid eating too much before bed. Caffeine can have a detrimental effect on sleep, and you should stop drinking coffee, tea and cola four hours before bed.

Taking regular exercise can aid your sleep pattern. Another tip is to avoid having electronic devices in the bedroom, as the light source from the screen can interfere with sleep. It also helps to try to have 30 minutes screen-free time before going to bed.

Support a healthy lifestyle for students with Boomerang Education student planners

If you’d like to know more about our planners, please get in touch on 01252 368 328

Or visit our website, where you can explore the diary content in digital format at https://boomeranged.co.uk/portfolio/secondary-design-school-planners/

#BreakTheStigma – Mental Health Awareness Week 2019

Mental Health Awareness Week is the UK’s national week to raise awareness nationwide for mental health.

Organised by the Mental Health Foundation (the UK’s charity for everyone’s mental health), Mental Health Awareness Week aims to inspire action to promote the message of good mental health for all.

Now celebrating its 19th year, Mental Health Awareness Week provides an annual focus point and theme for mental health – raising awareness and equipping people with the tools and information they need to take action.

Monday 13th May to Sunday 19th May 2019

This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week will focus on body image, and how issues surrounding this topic can affect all of us at any age, directly impacting our mental health and well-being.

Why is it important?

Last year’s Mental Health Awareness Week focused on stress and results of a 2018 survey found that a staggering 30% of all adults have felt stressed, overwhelmed or unable to cope due to thoughts surrounding their body image and appearance. That’s almost 1 in every 3 people.

New statistics have shown that nearly half (47%) of all 18-24-year olds have also felt this way about their body image, as did 1 in 5 (18%) of people aged 55 and over.

“Body image issues can affect all of us at any age… and during MHAW we will be publishing new research, considering some of the reasons why our body image can impact the way we feel, campaigning for change and publishing practical tools” – Mental Health Foundation.

Wanting to reach more people than ever, The Mental Health Foundation urges as many people as possible to get involved with Mental Health Awareness Week.

Doing your bit to help raise a greater awareness about the relationship between body image and mental health at all stages of life is imperative in making this year’s MHAW a success.

What will Boomerang be doing?

Here at Boomerang Education we’re focusing on being kind to our mind!

In order to help spread positivity in schools across the UK, we will be including a four-page mental health spread in our school planners. This spread will include tips on managing stress, ways to lead a more mentally healthy lifestyle and helplines and mobile apps that may just be invaluable to you and those around you.

This collaboration between Boomerang Education and Rainbow Education Group will be rolled out in all Boomerang Education school planners from September 2019. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled!

Support available

According to the mental health charity Mind, “good mental health means being generally able to think, feel and react in ways that you need and want to live your life”.

 Mental health affects more people than we realise – so, if you know someone who is suffering from poor mental health here are a wide range of support networks across the UK.

Mental Health Foundation – https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Mind – https://www.mind.org.uk

Time to Change – https://www.time-to-change.org.uk

Together – http://www.together-uk.org

Centre for Mental Health – https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk

Young Minds – https://youngminds.org.uk

Anxiety UK – https://www.anxietyuk.org.uk

If you want to help us support Mental health Awareness Week and be featured on our social media, send us a Tweet explaining your favourite body part to @BoomEdLtd using the hashtag #BeBodyKind.

Additionally, if you want to find out more about the mental health spread in our school planners, contact a member of our sales team on 01252 368 328 or email us at  info@boomerang-ed.com

World Health Day: Mental Health Awareness in School

What is World Health Day?

World Health Day is a global awareness day, organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), that we celebrate each year on 7th April. It marks the founding of WHO and is a fantastic opportunity to draw worldwide attention to a specific subject, chosen each year.

The theme of this year’s World Health Day campaign is “depression – let’s talk”. The aim is to mobilise action on something that affects people of all ages, all over the world.

As well as highlighting World Health Day in our school planners, we are dedicating this week’s blog post to mental health awareness in the school environment.

Early recognition

Recognition of mental illness and subsequent early diagnosis can greatly improve the lives of children and teens in school.

Research suggests that teens with mental health problems who do get appropriate treatment have increased scholastic test scores.

Effective mental health interventions and a positive school climate can contribute to improved student achievement.

world-health-day-good

Spotting the warning signs

Recognising the warning signs in students means that we are better equipped to provide appropriate help within school or outside of school if necessary.

As a teacher, you see your students every day and may be among the first to notice symptoms. Things to look out for include:

  • Increased lateness or absence
  • Angry or aggressive behaviour
  • Poor concentration
  • Student seems withdrawn, silent, lacks friends — especially if this is a change in behavior
  • Student appears overly anxious or worried, even fearful

What happens next

If you do spot one or more of the above signs in a particular student, ask yourself:

1) How frequently is this happening?

Warning signs will usually persist over a couple of weeks, and will not go away.

2) How extreme is the change in behaviour?

If a warning sign does show up, even if infrequent, it’s important to determine whether there is a significant change in behavioural pattern.

If you feel that there is an issue, reach out to the student in question and connect them to the school mental health staff.

For more advice on recognising mental health issues, the NHS website is a good starting point.