Children's Mental Health Week

To mark Children’s Mental Health Week, each class completed an activity related to this year's theme: Growing Together. The aims of Children's Mental Health Week this year was to introduce the idea of growth and change, and to emphasise that we can keep growing - even when things get tough.

In Year 5, we thought about the things we need to keep our minds healthy, such as learning a new skill.

We thought about the following questions:

• What new skill have I recently learnt?
• What steps did I take to get there?
• What went wrong?
• What helped me keep going?
• What did I learn from the experience?

We then made a comic book to show the development of our skills and how we persevered to succeed!

In Year 6, we discussed how we have grown and changed physically and emotionally since we started at Bishop Ellis. We then discussed how skills and maturity change over time and created comic strips which show how our skills have built up. We then created support balloons which detailed who supports us in our lives and help us to grow. We discussed how we have grown and changed physically and emotionally since we started at Bishop Ellis. We then discussed how skills and maturity change over time and created comic strips which show how our skills have built up. We then created support balloons which detailed who supports us in our lives and help us to grow.

Team Building Day

Year 3/4 took part in a Team Building Day led by The Problem Solving Company. The pupils played a variety of games where they needed to work collaboratively and cooperatively with each other.

Be Kind Online Workshop

Year 5 and 6 took part in a 'Be Kind Online' drama workshop, delivered by One Day Creative.

We started our workshop by playing a game called Tweet, Hashtag, Like. We then discussed where we would find those symbols and had a chat about different types of social media.

Or next game was agree/disagree and we talked about bullying:

K – be kind to others

I – inappropriate (content e.g. violent, swearing, things that are not suitable)

N – never overshare (personal information e.g. bank, address,

D – Do speak up (if you have seen any inappropriate comments or content)

We discussed what ‘digital footprints’ are and that everything you do online can be traced back to you so be careful what you are posting/writing/looking at.

World Youth Funday

This year, Pope Francis has a crucial message for us all. He wants us to stand up and be witnesses.

Recently, Pope Francis sent a message to world leaders at the UN climate talks in Glasgow – known as COP26. He called on them to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. Our global sisters and brothers do the least to cause the climate crisis, yet they are the ones most affected by it.

Throughout the year, people in schools and parishes have also raised their voices on these issues and have been calling for politicians to show the leadership we need to tackle the huge problems caused by climate change. Now that the official talks are over, we need make sure that promises are kept.

We have been gifted a beautiful world. All that God asks of us is that we care for it – it’s that simple!

So today, on this World Youth Sunday, we are taking on Pope Francis’ challenge to stand up and witness. We are pledging our voices to share this message, to stand up and to speak out for a world where everyone can flourish.

Antibullying Week

To raise awareness of Antibullying Week, we took part in Odd Socks Day. Children were invited to come to school in their usual school uniform, but with the addition of some wonderfully odd socks!

The day sends an important message to pupils that they should be allowed to be themselves, free from bullying, and it helps us celebrate Anti-Bullying Week in a fun and positive way.