This year, we embraced the theme “Know Yourself, Grow Yourself” in partnership with Here4You, supported by The Walt Disney Company and the Inside Out 2 characters.  As part of Wellbeing Wednesday, students took part in a variety of activities tailored to each year group.  These included playing board games, going on nature walks, creating envelopes filled with fun family activities, and engaging in discussions about worries and emotions—just to name a few.

Additionally, our Year 9, 10, and 12 students attended a special assembly led by the Northamptonshire MHST, focusing on managing exam stress and what that might look like. Secondary and Sixth Form students also discussed relevant topics throughout form time and in lessons. 

Children’s Mental Health Week is a fantastic annual event that shines a light on the importance of caring for our mental wellbeing.

This week marked the first birthday for our wellbeing mascot, Wilbur, who has played a part in supporting the Wellbeing Award for Schools work by giving wellbeing at CCS an identity and continuing to help encourage people to talk about mental health. 

Our Y7-12 Wellbeing Champions showed fantastic dedication to organise and run a bake sale, raising £212 for MacMillan Cancer Support.  They were inundated by Wilbur-themed cakes and sold out in record time.  Congratulations to our all-through sibling winners Sienna (Y6) and Owen (Y8) for their winning cupcakes. 

In Primary, students presented a gift and giant birthday card in their mental health assembly and CCS Friends continued their excellent support, running an additional bake sale to raise monies shared between MacMillan and school fundraising.  It was great to see so many students embracing the joint themes of Wilbur's birthday and yellow for World Mental Health Day, as well as seeing lots of our older Wellbeing Champions helping in Primary for a true all-through occasion.

Happy birthday Wilbur!

Movement was this year’s theme for Mental Health Awareness Week, including the idea that even small movements can make a big difference to our mental health.

Year 1 and 2 enjoyed dancing and 5-4-3-2-1 breathing exercises with our friends from NHS Mental Health Support Team, while Years 7-11 took on a Nature Trail challenge during PSHE lessons, clocking up 2,200kms in total! 

The Lowdown – a mental health charity for 11-25-year-olds – also came in to share information about their various services and to hear from young people about what supports their mental health.

Finally, in one of our new Wellbeing Champions’ first initiatives, key stage 3 students completed a survey that digs deeper into why people feel uncomfortable talking about mental health.  The champions will be analysing the results next week and finding ways to tackle the issues that discourage some from talking about their mental health.  As Wilbur, our wellbeing mascot, keeps reminding us …. it’s good to talk!

CCS joined in the celebrations for International Day of Happiness, which the United Nations introduced in 2012 with the belief that happiness is a fundamental human right.   Students in primary noted and sketched the events that brought them happiness over the past week in their journals.  We all enjoyed sharing each other’s highlights with the class to celebrate the power of happiness.

We celebrated this year’s ‘My Voice Matters’ theme by focusing on young people’s views and featuring these in our new mental health videos.  Activities this week included:

• Assemblies – sharing what students told us in the recent wellbeing survey and what we plan to do next to act on their views,
• ‘Wellbeing Myth-buster’ quiz – working in classes to spot the myths from the facts about mental health and bullying, featuring our new video with students from years 4, 6 and 13,
• Workshops – with help from our friends at ‘Now and Beyond’, children in KS1 learned about friendships, while KS2 learned how to turn feelings of anger into useful energy,
• Video – we promoted the new ‘Mental Health Stigma’ student video, which you can access on our website’s ‘About Mental Health’ page, and
• Displays – selecting winners from the student design competition.

We agree with the theme of the week – young people’s voices matter.

In support of Anti-Bullying Alliance’s annual initiative, students marked the start of Anti-Bullying Week 2023 by dressing up for Odd Socks Day.  Assemblies and tutor sessions this week featured: 

• An update from our wellbeing project team 

• Anti-bullying guidance from the Pastoral team,  

• A CCS Newsround wellbeing episode made by Year 9-13 students, and 

• A showcase of several initiatives from our Year 4 children, such as a class feelings jar and wellbeing posters. 

Our biggest ever Big Health and Happiness Week in primary included lots of great activities, each promoting good mental health and happiness.  Highlights included arts and crafts, ballroom dancing, food tasting, party games, an array of sports, and even a parents’ yoga session, just to name a few. 

This year’s event introduced the theme 'Find your little big thing', emphasising the smallest of changes can have a huge impact on our wellbeing.