Week of WELLBEING School Awareness Pack - Kids Inspire

Week of
WELLBEING
School Awareness Pack
     18-24 October 2021

What is in this pack?

          This pack is an introduction to
   Kids Inspire and our 2021 Week of Wellbeing
                      (WoW)
         Theme: "Creativity & Wellbeing"

  We would love for you to engage with our WoW
 week by encouraging your students and staff to
think about their own mental health and wellbeing.

    After reading this pack, if you would like to
     participate through class activities or by
          fundraising for us, please email
  communications@kidsinspire.org.uk to receive
 the Activities & Fundraising pack and to register
                   your interest.

About Kids Inspire

Kids Inspire is a non-profit organisation that supports children,
young people and families with emotional trauma and emerging
mental health difficulties in Essex.

Through a range of therapeutic and community activities we
promote resilience, self-awareness, and relationship building to
empower more positive life choices.

Our qualified, experienced therapists have been trained in a
broad range of therapies and work creatively to encourage body
and mind reconnection. The focus is on the strengths of the child,
their uniqueness, family and other relationships.

To find out more about us and the work we do, please visit our
website here

      About Week of Wellbeing
For the past few years, we have run a "Week of Wellbeing" (or WoW Week) to
promote good mental health practices amongst children and adults.

Throughout WoW, we will be hosting and collaboratively partnering on events and
activities that raise the profile and the importance of mental wellbeing.

It is so important that we pay attention to our mental health. We often talk about
how we can stay physically healthy, but sometimes we overlook how we can best
stay mentally healthy, which is equally important, especially after what has been an
incredibly tumultuous period in our lives.

That is why we would love for you to engage with our WoW week, it would be a
fantastic opportunity to think about and maintain their mental wellbeing.

Week of Wellbeing 2021
                           Creativity & Wellbeing
For this years WoW Week, we want to encourage everyone to use creativity as a
way to promote better mental health & wellbeing. Each day we are going to focus
on a different aspect of creativity which will also tie in with the Expressive/Creative
Arts Therapies we can offer to our service users.

Here you will find some information on each of the topics, to use and share as you
wish. You will also find examples of the activities you may run in class.

If you would like to receive our full activities pack, please email
communications@kidsinspire.org.uk

                      Monday- What is Wellbeing?

Looking after your wellbeing means preserving your happiness, health and
positivity.

We can maintain our wellbeing in multiple ways and is different for everyone.
Here are a few examples:

   Connect with Others- building healthy relationships with people around us
   helps to enrich our wellbeing
   Be Mindful- paying more attention to our own emotions and feelings means we
   better understand ourselves and can help improve our mental wellbeing
   Be Active- what we do with our bodies can have a big impact on our mental
   wellbeing, it can help our mind and body be in tune.

You can see our A-Z of Wellbeing for a list of simple, diverse ideas for your
wellbeing.

                             School Activites
   Ask students to create a "What Makes Me Me" Map
   Use our A-Z of Wellbeing for some ideas for your wellbeing and share this with
   the class.

    Please email communications@kidsinspire.org.uk for our full Activities and
                              Fundraising pack

Week of Wellbeing 2021
                               Tuesday- Music

 We use music to better understand and express our emotions and thoughts. It
 can become a language that breaks through when words are too difficult to use.

 One of our Music Psychotherapists, Fiona, tell us more:

 "There is such a huge array of music and sound available that any one of us can
 find something that reflects our inner world so we feel connected with, and
 understood...it that can help each of us become more self-aware and bring about
 emotions we might be suppressing"

                            School Activities

   Make a class playlist of your favourite songs and play them in a class.

    Please email communications@kidsinspire.org.uk for our full Activities and
                              Fundraising pack

                    Wednesday- Dance/Movement

We all know that Dance and Movement can help us to look after our physical well-
being, but it can also be a great way to assist the integration of our emotional,
cognitive, physical and social aspects.

Two of our Dance and Movement Psychotherapists, Shannon and Lucy tell us
more:

"It’s really important to make time and create space to stretch our muscles,
increase our heart rate and notice how we are feeling from a fitness perspective,
but also noticing our mood, energy and the internal emotional weather!"

                           School Activities
   Encourage students to do a spinal roll after lunch to release endorphins and
   get ready for the second half of the day.

    Please email communications@kidsinspire.org.uk for our full Activities and
                              Fundraising pack

Week of Wellbeing 2021
                               Thursday- Art
Art can be a great way of expressing and communicating complex feelings. It can
help to address emotional issues which may be confusing and distressing.

One of our Art Psychotherapists, Amber, explains further:

"Children naturally engage in creative play from a young age, making messes with
their food, touching their parents face as they sing to them and even building mud
pies in the garden! It is this interaction with life that helps them to learn. When
children make things, it helps them to make sense of complicated ideas, the image
acts like a sticky sponge for memories to attach to"

                            School Activities
   Lead a "Watch Me, Copy Me" art lesson to improve pupils confidence to share
   their inner world without judgement.

    Please email communications@kidsinspire.org.uk for our full Activities and
                              Fundraising pack

                            Friday- Drama/Play
Drama activities can help us improve our wellbeing through communication and
expression.

Jasmine, one of our Dramatherapists, tells us how:

"Through using dramatic techniques, for example story telling or role play, we are
able to share our stories. Drama offers us distance in sharing these stories through
the metaphor of story and play, which is often particularly beneficial to children
who may not have the words for how they are feeling"

                            School Activities
   Play a game of emotional charades, children draw a card with an emotion on it
   and act the emotion out for the group to guess.

    Please email communications@kidsinspire.org.uk for our full Activities and
                              Fundraising pack

Teachers and Staff
This year has been an incredibly difficult time not only for pupils but for teaching
and admin staff also. Many of the staff at Kids Inspire have a background in
education and, from their experience, we know that school staff often struggle to
find the time to switch off from work, look after themselves and think about their
own wellbeing.

Please share our "Individuals" Week of Wellbeing pack with staff which outlines
some activities you can do and some small everyday changes to maintain
wellbeing.

                Fundraising Ideas
We are constantly amazed at the creative and inspiring ways the Kids Inspire
Community fundraises for us. We have had moustache growers, Santa
impersonators, Halloweenathons, Bake Sales and many many more.

We would welcome you to fundraise for us during our Week of Wellbeing, we
would be incredibly grateful.

For fundraising ideas and further information please email
communications@kidsinspire.org.uk to receive our Activities and Fundraising
pack.

                         Contact Us
We hope this pack will encourage you to engage with our WoW week through
running activities, fundraising for us or both.

Please email communications@kidsinspire.org.uk to register your interest, receive
our Activities and Fundraising pack or to receive further information.

We are here to help with any information or fundraising materials you may need.

We also offer WoW week assemblies on a first come first serve basis. If you are
interested, please email us.