February 7th 2021
The emotional wellbeing of the younger generation had already been identified as a worrying issue prior to the pandemic, and Children’s Mental Health Week has highlighted the growing crisis which none of us can afford to ignore. The limited opportunities for young people to have regular social interaction, sport and play since the lockdowns began has extenuated this crisis further since March 2020, and figures from NHS England starkly illustrate the point with 1 in 9 children experiencing mental health issues in 2017, and rising to 1 in 6 in 2020.
On Virtual Moulsford this week, a number of events have taken place within the theme of ‘Express Yourself’ for Children’s Mental Health Week, and it has been great to see the boys and staff taking part in all the initiatives, including today’s ‘Dress to Express Yourself’ as shown in the above photo of 7P in Assembly this morning.
Schools are perfectly placed to help address the underlying issues, and it is our responsibility to ensure that our education system has children’s emotional wellbeing at its heart both when operating virtually and when schools return. Developing skills such as self-awareness and the regulation of emotions are critical life skills, which we can no longer afford to take for granted.
While this presents major challenges for schools and their teachers nationally, it is so important that we should tackle it head on.
Parents may wish to join the talk arranged by Mrs Bush next Wednesday 10th February on ‘Zones of Regulation – a framework designed to foster self-regulation and emotional control’. We also continue to encourage parents to sign up to the Teen Tips Wellbeing Hub – there is so much useful information and support for parents, and you don’t need to wait until your child is a teenager to benefit from the free advice available. Please see the Week Ahead for details of both.
Moulsford places the very highest priority on the boys’ mental health and wellbeing. It is the first agenda item of pretty much every meeting we have, and there are numerous conversations constantly taking place discussing and sharing information about individual boys. During Virtual Moulsford we have been on the lookout for those boys who may be struggling and have liaised closely with both them and their parents to put support in place. As ever, we are at our most effective when working closely with parents, so please contact us if you think there is any information relevant to your son that would be helpful for us to know.
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