Special Events

The week beginning 7th February was Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme this year was ‘Growing Together.’ We started the week with an assembly thinking about growing emotionally and the children explored this theme in their classes throughout the week too.

Reception

During wellbeing week, Reception enjoyed being involved in the whole school Mandala, having to draw pictures of themselves and think of a word that expressed who they are, such as being kind, friendly, happy etc. Reception were first to start the Mandala pattern and each child carefully thought of where to place their heart drawings. We also read the book “The Dragon and the Nibblesome Knight” and the children discussed what it takes to be a kind friend and how we can take care of each other. We also read other stories that focused on our wellbeing such as “Have you filled a bucket today?”, “Ruby’s Worry” and “The Invisible String.”

Year 1

For Children’s Mental Health Week, the children focused on ‘Be Active’ and ‘Connect’ from the 5 ways to Wellbeing. We played some team games outside and played some games with the parachute.

The children also loved contributing to the federation mandala and having some quiet time to do some mindfulness colouring.

Year 2

During Children’s Mental Health Week, Year 2 enjoyed several activities including mindfulness colouring and breathing exercises. In our PATHs assembly, we talked about our feelings and discussed how we learn to manage uncomfortable emotions, as we get older. In classes, we talked about goals and the children wrote about the ways in which they would like to learn to manage their emotions.

The children who attended our creative club during that week also made worry monsters to take home to help manage their worries!

Year 3

During Wellbeing week, Year 3 considered what the theme ‘growth’ could refer to; we discussed the physical growth of people and plants and our emotional growth. The children reflected on how they have grown emotionally since starting at Toftwood Federation.
They then spent some time considering how they are unique as a result of their own growth and decorated a yellow heart which was then transferred to the Federation mandala.
We also continued with our focus on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing with an emphasis on ‘taking notice’, particularly by taking notice of how our bodies feel during different activities and parts of the day.

Year 4

During Children’s Mental Health week, pupils in Year 4 talked about their emotions in a PATHs lesson. During the day, we took the time to be mindful and notice our emotions and how they might affect our actions. In our year group assembly time we learned to sing the song ‘It’s ok (please just say)’ which teaches us to accept our emotions and helps us to deal with them appropriately. Year 4s had a lot of fun talking about this year’s theme of ‘Growing Together’ and talking about what makes us special when we coloured in a heart for each pupil to add to the Federation Mandala.

Year 5

In Year 5, we used one lesson to enjoy taking the time to write up our diary entry in neat, including presentation and illustrations.

We also dipped into Go Noodle dance and Cosmic Yoga.

Year 6

Year 6 children enjoyed thinking about how we have grown together since the beginning of the year. They spent some time personalising a purple heart, which then contributed to the Federation mandala. The children also continued with their half term focus on the 5 Ways to Wellbeing with an emphasis on ‘taking notice’.  

At the end of the week, every year group helped to create a federation mandala. Each child wrote words or a sentence on a heart explaining why they are unique. Each year group had a colour, which the children used to decorate their heart. Every child was able to place their heart themselves, building up from Reception to Year 6. The finished mandala looked amazing and demonstrated that all the children are unique individuals who are part of a bigger school community.