Tag Archive for: student mental health

Make connections in Children’s Mental Health Week

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Children’s Mental Health Week 2023 takes place from 6th to 12th February 2023, and this year’s theme is Let’s Connect.

The aim of Children’s Mental Health week is to promote good mental health and a sense of wellbeing in children and adults. The theme is all about inspiring children to connect with others in healthy, rewarding, and meaningful ways.

Free resources are available for primary age and secondary age children to help young people take part in the week. These activities are designed to encourage children (and adults) to consider how to make meaningful connections that support mental health.

Mental wellbeing advice for primary age children

Promoting good mental health is a practice that can be started at a young age and is something we focus on in our primary planner.

Our range of student planners are designed to guide students through the school year, beginning with our primary student planner. It contains advice on mental wellbeing appropriate to this age group.

A special feature within the student planner offers tips to help children think differently about worries and gives advice on how to find ways to solve issues or accept them. It acknowledges the type of worries children could face, such as anxiety about schoolwork, assessments and exams, appearance, family and friendships, getting sick or being ill, and getting into trouble or being told off.

The primary student planner also talks about resilience in a feature entitled ‘Learning to Bounce’. It explains how we can adjust to the difficult challenges we might face and how being resilient can help us deal more easily with these challenges and bounce back from them.

In addition, it describes to young students how ‘giving things a go’ can build confidence. It encourages flexibility by suggesting that if something you’ve tried hasn’t worked, you should try again with a different method.

Mental wellbeing and mindset growth advice for secondary age children

In our secondary student planner, we delve deeper into mental wellbeing and focus on recognising anxiety. Students may become aware of signs of panic and feeling under pressure, including disturbed sleep, inability to relax, worrying most of the time, overeating or reduced appetite, and irrational and continuous fear.

If a student is worried about low mood, they should monitor warning signs, including feeling sad over long periods, changes in sleep and appetite, getting very irritable, not enjoying things they used to, withdrawing from things they love, and hurting themselves in different ways.

Our secondary student planners encourage students to keep a record of negative thoughts and talk to someone who can offer an objective perspective. The secondary planner mentions particular issues, such as worries about eating and self-harm, and gives tips on how to tackle problems and seek help.

Promoting a growth mindset

As well as mental wellbeing, our secondary student planners include a feature on growth mindset.

A fixed mindset approach can lead to students becoming heavily self-critical and thinking that intelligence is static. As a result, it can prevent skill development.

A growth mindset approach means not being afraid to make mistakes and thriving on challenges. A growth mindset helps students to embrace new opportunities, increase their academic potential and develop self-esteem.

By recognising that mistakes are something to learn from, students can develop their intelligence over time.

Help support children’s mental wellbeing and a growth mindset with Boomerang Education student planners

Our student planners contain a wealth of content to support mental wellbeing and a growth mindset. 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.

If you’d like to know more about our student 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/

Sport in Schools – Why football is such a great sport for girls

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Women’s and girls’ football has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years thanks to higher standards of play and increased TV coverage of games.

This culminated in the Lionesses’ incredible victory at the Euros this year, inspiring countless girls to take up the sport. But how accessible to girls is football as a PE subject in schools?

The history of women’s football

Women playing football isn’t a new development. One of the first recorded women’s matches was a game billed as Scotland v England held at Edinburgh’s Hibernian Park on 9 May 1881.

The popularity of women’s football grew during the First World War when women took on jobs traditionally held by men. Thousands of women worked in munitions factories, and workplace teams were formed.

The most famous of these was the Dick, Kerr Ladies football team. Dick, Kerr and Company was a locomotive and tramcar manufacturer that switched factory production to supply ammunition during the war.

In 1920, 53,000 spectators watched a game between the Dick, Kerr Ladies and St. Helens. But these record crowds were short-lived as on 5 December 1921, The FA banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches, encouraging associated clubs to follow suit.

Although The FA stated, ‘the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged’, it’s likely there was a financial motivation. Women’s games were generally played for charitable causes, unlike the commercial men’s game, which could bring in revenue for The FA.

The ban remained in place for 50 years, making it a mammoth struggle for women’s football ever to reach the same level as the men’s game.

Football for girls in schools

In 2020, The FA set out a new initiative, Inspiring Positive Change – a 2024 goal for every primary school-aged girl to have equal access to football in schools and clubs.

The FA found that while 72% of girls played as much football as boys in primary school, the figure falls to 44% when in secondary school. Only 40% of secondary schools in the UK offer girls the same access to football via after-school clubs as boys.

The FA commented: ‘at a practical level, this means embedding football for girls in schools, as part of the PE curriculum and in after-school sessions.’

However, the Department for Education has refused to guarantee girls will be given the same opportunity for football lessons in school as boys. The current guidance is
to allow girls equal opportunities to participate in comparable sporting activities, such as
netball, badminton, tennis, and rounders within the national curriculum.

Currently, it’s up to schools to decide which sports they teach.

Benefits of girls playing football

It’s been shown that playing football provides girls with far more than just physical benefits.

Being part of a football team has been proven to boost self-esteem and improve confidence in girls. They feel more motivated and empowered to achieve their goals.

Playing football also develops social skills as girls learn how to work together and develop friendships. In turn, this helps to reduce anxiety.

After their stunning success at the Euros, the England women’s football team has campaigned for all girls to have the opportunity to play football at school. They also called on the government to ensure all girls can access a minimum of two hours of physical education a week.

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup to look forward to next year, it’s likely that even more girls will be inspired to take up the sport.

How we can all help to initiate change

student planner mental welling
Planning to incorporate two hours of physical education into your timetable is as vital as planning an academic schedule.

That’s why our secondary school planners support learning and development with healthy lifestyle and mental wellbeing resource.

The Reference Section at the back of our secondary planners cover all aspects of healthy living, from eating well, exercising and getting the right amount of sleep to exploring the growth mindset and understanding how to improve mental health.

If you want to know more about our secondary planner content for 2022/2023, 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/