Good morning, Prep School,
It’s Tuesday!
This week is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK and it is a time for us all to take a break and reflect on our own mental fitness and emotional wellbeing. We have spoken to you a lot in school about looking after your mental fitness as well as your physical fitness, and that is even more important at the moment.
We are all finding ourselves in situations we have never been in before – school now being in your home, being taught by our parents, having to work independently, some of us, with little support, missing our friends, not being able to see our grandparents or loved family members, not being able to hug each other, not being allowed to do the extra-curricular clubs that we love, missing out on birthday parties and other celebrations.
It is ok to feel overwhelmed by all of these things. Its ok to feel sad or angry or frustrated. It is ok to ask why. It is ok to actually be enjoying lockdown and the extra time you are having with you mummies and daddies. It is ok to be apprehensive about the future. It is ok to be anxious about coming back to school or seeing your friends again. It is ok to worry about the people you love and it is ok to not know how you are feeling at the moment.
I can assure you, we are all feeling like this – even Mrs Bennett and Dr Luker – We all have good days and bad days and yuk days. We all have days when we are sad or worried or overwhelmed. We all have happy and joyous days. These are all ok.
What isn’t really ok though, is if you keep these feelings bottled up. If you keep these feelings inside, they will grow and grow and grow and eventually explode like a bottle of fizzy pop. It is a really good idea that you talk about these feelings with someone you feel comfortable with. That might be your mum, your dad, your gran, your auntie, your great auntie Beryl, your teachers. . . anyone. This can be over the phone, face to face, a letter, over FaceTime. . .pigeon mail if you need to!
I also know this isn’t easy as some of us don’t like to talk about things (I am one of these people) but I do know that as soon as you talk about it, you feel a bit better. The more you talk, discuss and understand your feelings, the less they affect you. I cannot promise you that your trusted person will have the answers or be able to solve your problems but they will be able to support and reassure you.
So for the rest of this week, the Bulletin is going to have a wellbeing task or two added as well. Something you can do to make time for yourself and look after yourself.
The theme of Mental Health Awareness Week this year is ‘Kindness’ so let’s start with that!
Kindness Challenge: Can you carry out 3 random acts of kindness between now and Saturday. “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” – Princess Diana
Wellbeing activity: Can you play a game as a family?
We are missing you all so much. Can you go and give someone in your family a huge, real hug?
So each day I promised I would be sending you a life skill task to complete and also a joke, poem, picture, fact or reflection. Here we go for Tuesday 19th May 2020:
Life skill of the day: Can you learn how to wrap a present in a square box?
Day of the year themes: ‘May Ray Day’. . .
Thunk of the day: Remember, Thunks are unusual questions that are designed to make you think. There are no right or wrong answers -just your answer. The only rule is that you must be able to justify and explain your answer. You cannot just say the first thing that comes into your head. Really think about the question and discuss with your family!
Question: If I composed a piece of music but it was never played, would it still be music?
TOPS activity of the week: Can you find a famous painting that you like and try to recreate it at home using only things you have in the house (not paints, crayons or felt tips)? Maybe you can make Monet’s Waterlilies out of socks or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers out of LEGO?
Quote of the Day: “A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything” – Irish Proverb
Sleeps til Santa: 220
Have a lovely Tuesday,
Take care,
Love
Mrs Bennett 😊
