Dunholme St Chad's Church Of England Primary School

  1. Key Information
  2. Emotional Health and Well-being

Pastoral Support

 

 If you need any pastoral support or advice you are encouraged to get in touch with any of our team:

 

  • Rev Adam Watson - If you need to contact Rev Adam please send him an email with your contact number to: hisnameisadamwatson@hotmail.com and he will get back to you

  • Learning Mentor and Mental Health First Aider - Mrs Debbie Tipping

           Debbie is available to provide ongoing support for families already in contact with her and anyone who needs to seek support regarding emotional health and well-being. 

           Email address: debbie.tipping@dunholme.lincs.sch.uk

           Contact number: 07753856197

Useful contacts:

 

The Healthy Minds and CAMHS website has been updated with information regarding COVID-19 and emotional wellbeing:  

 

 Lincolnshire County Council’s Emotional Wellbeing Pathway has lots of useful advice and information:  http://search3.openobjects.

 

 Here4You Advice line (Monday – Friday, 0930 – 16.30 ) 0800 2346342

 

 

 

 

Link to Covid-19 resources. https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronavirus-covid-19-liturgy-and-prayer-resources

 

Anxiety, stress and worry - nhs

Coronavirus and your well being - MIND

Stay at home superheros

Ideas to help with mindfulness and well being

Changing routines and being stuck at home can lead to children getting bored, agitated, and restless. With the pandemic outbreak happening around them, many children may also be feeling confused and frightened. It’s an anxious time for many of us, never mind our children, with many never having experienced anything like this before or truly understanding what is going on.

It is therefore a difficult, unprecedented time for children but also for parents, who may struggle to alleviate their children’s fear, on top of their own, and keep them occupied while they are out of school.

Here are some mindful activities you can do with your children to help them stay calm and keep busy, while they are at home during this time.

  •  Have some breathing breaks

One way to help children calm their anxious thoughts and relieve overwhelming feelings is through having breathing breaks throughout the day. Breath can be used as a tool to reset your mind. The simple act of focusing on your breathing can help you to unwind, reset and step away from the worried mind.

Take them through a simple 10-minute breathing exercise.

Start by encouraging them to join you in taking deep, full breaths and exhaling slowly out of your mouth. Focus on counting your inhalations and exhalations as that can help you transition from faster breathing to slower even breaths, which promote relaxation, counting aloud after each breath. Observe the rising and falling sensation that it creates in your bodies.

It’s completely normal if your minds wander. Notice these thoughts, but then let them go, bringing your attention back to your breath. Be sure to let them know that, too.

Once you’ve finished, encourage your children to congratulate themselves, and ask them how the process made them feel. The morning can be a great time to practise breathing exercises with your children as it can help set the day up on a positive note and clear your minds for the day ahead.

  • Play a mindful game

It can be hard to think of ways to keep your children occupied, especially without resorting to screen time. One way to occupy their time during the day, and help them feel calmer at the same time, is to play games that involve their senses. This can help them bring their attention back to the present moment and create a feeling of grounding.

Here are some quick, simple, mindful games you can get your children involved in, without much preparation time and hassle:

  • Touch: Put a bunch of mystery items in a paper bag and take turns feeling one object at a time and guess what it is as you describe the texture and shape.
  • Sight:Play eye spy.  Encourage your child to look around the room and choose something they haven’t seen before.
  • Sound: Set a timer for one minute and count how many different sounds you can hear with your eyes closed, and then share what you heard with each other.

 

  • Cooking with a twist

When the children are home all day, there will be more cooking to get through and mouths to feed, which offers the perfect opportunity to get children stuck into some mindful cooking and baking – while learning multiple new skills at the same time!

Encourage your children to help you out with the daily cooking, teaching them small skills and keeping them engaged in the process of turning ingredients into meals. Focusing their attention on tasks such as stirring, mixing and weighing, can be an active, fun way to help them concentrate and keep their minds in the present, allowing stressful thoughts to leave the mind.

To further use the senses, encourage your children to describe the colours of the ingredients, the texture of the food during different parts of the process, and notice the different forms the meal has taken, from start to finish.

Baking in particular can be a fun activity for children to be occupied with, whilst also being a grounding and therapeutic experience. The repetitive actions and gentle rhythms when mixing or kneading can help relax the mind.