Children’s Mental Health Week at KAS
4th March 25
To mark Children’s Mental Health Week (3-9 February), our pastoral care team devised a special events programme, sharing helpful advice on maintaining good mental health, highlighting emotional coping strategies, and encouraging students to support one another.
Well-being activites
Year 7 and 8 students were able to select from a menu of activities designed to promote mindfulness and boost their mood. Options included yoga (above), tie-dye, board games, Lego building, pottery and walking Alfie, the school dog, on the Heath.
School Six callovers
Our panel of student reps, School Six, talked to all Upper School year groups about mental well-being in Callovers. In the interactive sessions, they shared details of positive practices they have in place to help manage their own mental health and highlighted the importance of regularly checking in with friends.
Shaun Flores
Children’s mental health champion Shaun Flores spoke with Years 9, 12 and 13 about the challenges he has faced in his life and the coping strategies he has developed in response to them.
Shaun spoke honestly and engagingly about suffering a mental health breakdown, but how he was ultimately able to embrace personal difficulties as an opportunity for learning and growth.
“I found it really inspiring,” said Tierney C (Y9). “It highlighted how it’s normal to face challenges and how we should talk about them more,” added Eila ZJ (Y9).
Dr Bettina Hohnen
Clinical psychologist and former KAS parent Dr Bettina Hohnen delivered a talk to Years 10 & 11 titled ‘The Teenage Brain’. She highlighted the pivotal changes in the brain from puberty onwards and the opportunities this period of development presents.
The talk covered finding a balance between helpful and unhelpful stress, the need to practice emotional discomfort, and how loving what we do makes hard things feel easier.
Bettina also shared helpful insights and practical tips in a special session for parents titled ‘Raising Resilient Kids: How to Help Children Thrive’.
Well-being reading list
Our Upper School Librarian, Jenny Monaghan, curated a collection of well-being titles, which were on display in the library for students to browse and borrow.
