Mental Health & Emotional Wellbeing
At Coleshill C E Primary School, we are committed to supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of our pupils and staff. We know that everyone experiences life challenges that can make us vulnerable and at times, anyone may need additional emotional support. We take the view that positive mental health is everybody’s business and that we all have a role to play.
How we Promote a Mentally Healthy Environment:
- Promoting our school values and encouraging a sense of belonging
- Promoting pupil voice and opportunities to participate in decision-making
- Celebrating academic and non-academic achievements in order to promote self-esteem
- Providing opportunities to develop a sense of worth through taking responsibility for themselves and others
- Providing opportunities to reflect
- Access to appropriate support that meets their needs
- Helping children to understand their emotions and feelings better and to feel comfortable sharing any concerns or worries
- Helping children to develop emotional resilience and to manage setbacks
Our Inclusion Team: Mental Health and Wellbeing
Mrs J Rutherford - Mental Health First Aid Lead
Mrs A Currin - Mental Health First Aider
Mrs A Newman - Mental Health First Aider
Mrs M Thompson - Mental Health First Aider
Wellbeing apps
Helping your child manage their health and wellbeing is a top priority for many, which is why so many apps exist for this. We have found some of the best and most popular wellbeing and mindfulness apps for you and your family.
From recognising emotions to practising mediation techniques, these apps offer a range of ways to manage wellbeing.
Whilst these apps can be useful, they are not a replacement for seeking professional medical advice.
These apps help children manage their general day-to-day wellbeing. Children can learn how to practise daily reflections or use tools to keep their online interactions positive.
CBeebies Go Explore: Learn
Suitable for: 5 & under
How does the app work?
This app from BBC helps children under 5 learn a variety of topics including wellbeing in a hands-on way.
How can it help your child?
- In addition to numeracy and literacy skills, the CBeebies app also helps children practise wellbeing exercises like breathing techniques.
Headspace
Suitable for: All ages
How does the app work?
Available to all subscribers and their kids, users can enjoy fun, engaging activities that teach them the basics of mindfulness. They’ll practice breathing exercises, visualisations and even try some focus-based meditation.
Headspace for Kids, available to subscribed users, has bespoke exercises tailored for 3-5s, 6-8s and 9-12s.
How can it help your child?
- Children learn mindfulness techniques to stay calm and relaxed
- They learn about other topics as well — such as compassion, creativity and kindness
Mindful Powers
Suitable for: ages 4-12
How does the app work?
Mindful Powers is built on a skills-based approach that helps children build a healthier relationship with life, stress and anxiety. It empowers kids to bring calm to their lives at the touch of their fingertips.
Through a series of 10 progressive and interactive voice-guided sessions, kids learn how to master the powers of mindfulness – the ability to know and understand what is happening in one’s head at any given moment without getting carried away by it.
Before each lesson, kids smooth their very own ‘Flibbertigibbet’, who is in an agitated state, with the touch of their finger.
How can it help your child?
- This sensory-based repetitive interaction triggers the body’s rest and digest response, helping kids relax and regain focus
- Children learn useful lifelong skills to manage stressors and anxiety
Me: A Kid's Diary
Suitable for: ages 8-12
How does the app work?
This app uses creative tasks to encourage and build self-awareness, self-confidence, empathy and kindness. It lets kids document their worlds through drawings, animations, recordings and photos.
How can it help your child?
- The prompts given to children help them become more aware of who they are
- It allows creative expression of things in their lives, regardless of how they feel
Apps to learn about emotions:
For some children, regulating their emotions can be difficult. As they grow, they might struggle with intense feelings that they find hard to control. These apps teach children how to identify these emotions and their triggers. They also teach coping strategies for these emotions.
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
Suitable for: ages 5 and under
How does the app work?
Brought to you by Sesame.org, this app teaches kids Sesame’s research-based ‘Breathe, Think, Do’ approach to solving problems and dealing with tricky situations. Like all things Sesame Street, it’s engaging and accessible for all children.
How can it help your child?
- It helps your child learn coping strategies to help them stay calm
- The ‘more tips’ section helps your child develop resilience by giving them tools to solve problems
Positive Penguins
Suitable for: ages 7-11
How does the app work?
The Positive Penguins app has a simple 5-minute guided meditation for children to learn to sit, relax and let go of negative thoughts as they come into their heads. Children learn strategies to understand how events or situations affect their emotions. It is designed to change thought patterns.
How can it help your child?
- It can help children understand why they feel a certain feeling and help them think more positively
- It is designed to help children become aware of how situations influence their emotions
Smiling Mind
Suitable for: all ages
How does the app work?
Smiling Mind is a mindfulness meditation app developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to users’ minds. Programmes are designed to assist people in dealing with the pressure, stress and challenges of daily life.
Every session starts by asking children to assess their mood based on three criteria: happiness, contentedness and alertness. At the end of the session, they are sent back into the world ‘with a smile on your mind.’
How can it help children?
- From slowly discovering who they are and gaining a sense of independence, to learning how to interact socially and respect others, the app offers support for the potential challenges of being a child
- Children learn techniques that they can carry on into adulthood
Apps to help manage anxiety
Some children may feel anxious about what they see online or what happens in their lives. These emotions can take their toll on a young person, so it’s important for them to learn how to manage these feelings.
Clear Fear
Suitable for: all ages
How does the app work?
Developed by a clinical psychologist, the app uses Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to help users learn how to respond to heightened emotions. It helps users manage their anxiety through a range of activities and exercises within the app.
How can it help your child?
- Children prone to anxiety may find themselves responding physically to stress. Clear Fear helps them learn how to reduce these responses
- It helps users change the thoughts and behaviours that make them feel more anxious
- Users learn how to release emotions causing them anxiety
Chill Panda
Suitable for: all ages
How does the app work?
Chill Panda helps users understand and monitor the relationship between heart rate and anxiety. Users are asked to complete activities based on their heart rate and beginning emotions with the goal of increasing their mood.
Activities include breathing techniques, yoga poses, exercises and calming games.
How can it help your child?
- It helps children not only monitor their emotions but also recognise them and learn coping techniques
- Children learn lifelong techniques to manage life’s stresses.
Physical wellbeing apps
Whether it’s getting active or drinking enough water, physical wellbeing is just as important as mental wellbeing. These apps are designed to help children and young people develop their understanding of their physical health while encouraging them to get moving.
GoNoodle Kids Videos
Suitable for: ages 6-12
How does the app work?
GoNoodle Kids encourages kids to get up and get their bodies moving, making screen time active with 300+ dance videos, yoga exercises and mindfulness activities for kids.
Kids can browse through a large library of short videos ranging from about two to five minutes long. Follow the demonstrations to dance, jump up and down, spin around, regulate breathing, get into yoga poses and more.
All content is created and curated to be safe for kids with the help of choreographers and mindfulness experts.
How can it help your child?
- Promotes activity and physical wellbeing
- Videos exercises promote mindfulness
- Can aid positive mental wellbeing
Plant Nanny
Suitable for: ages 9+
How does the app work?
The app gives children a fun little nudge to help them get into the habit of drinking water regularly throughout the day by combining it with the process of growing a virtual plant.
You can pick from a selection of virtual plants and enter basic information like your child’s weight and how much water they should be consuming.
When you’ve set this up, your child will be prompted to water the plant throughout the day in order to keep it alive, and they’ll have to drink water at the same time. Once the plant has fully grown, it can be planted in a digital garden and can generate new seeds to start the whole process over again.
How it can help your child?
- Help them stay hydrated throughout the day
- Encourages healthy habits that can become second-nature and a regular part of their daily lives
Super Stretch Yoga
Suitable for: ages 7 & under
How does the app work?
This simple app uses animation and video to help young kids stretch and breath with yoga poses. From beginning to end, kids learn basic movements while having fun. The repetitive structure makes it easy for them to get the hang of it.
How can it help your child?
- Gives children a basic understanding of stretching and breathing
- Explains why movements are good for their bodies
- Encourages them to get moving
Apps for whole-family wellbeing
The whole family can get involved with these wellbeing apps. Learn about mindful techniques and tasks that can be completed to support everyone’s mental health.
Manatee
Suitable for: All ages
How does the app work?
When parents install the app, they are asked to register for the anxiety course. Then you add your kids and install it on their device. In the course, child and parent receive weekly goals to complete together. Other parents can join as well, and children over 12 receive check-ins to check their progress.
How can it help your child?
- It involves the whole family in managing your child’s mental health, which can help them feel supported and understood
- Children are provided with journaling opportunities and a chatbot that provides CBT-based exercises.
Focus on the Go!
Suitable for: All ages/children 8 and younger
How does the app work?
A series of family-based games designed to help kids practice understanding and communicating their feelings and developing skills to calm down in challenging situations. There’s a family check-up to see how the family is tracking and further resources, tips and videos aimed at building resilience.
How can it help your child?
- Helps develop skills in identifying emotions, solving problems and improving communication
- Helps to build family resilience as a whole through gameplay.
