Snow is such a rare phenomenon in the South-East of England these days, so we weren’t surprised that the children in our community welcomed it with excitement last weekend.
It was heart-warming to see the positive impact of the snow through everyone’s lovely photos. Building a snowman, running around the garden and throwing snowballs helped the children be physically active: essential for staying healthy both in body and mind. The snow created a break from the endlessly similar days with a chance to enjoy fun activities filled with laughter. Likewise, those who decided not to go out in the cold weather and spent a day inside with a good book also had an opportunity to relax.
Given the amount of time we are all spending on screens during lockdown, it’s so important to find ways to take a break. Headteacher Jon Chesworth remarked: “Our job as educators and parents is to ensure we create a healthy relationship with technology that becomes instilled from an early age. We must offset screen time with physical activity and wherever possible fresh air, something we are usually very lucky to be able to do at school. One of the challenges in creating this balance is that we often don’t model these behaviours ourselves, I include myself in this! What, when and how we use technology is all about balance.”
Next week (1-7 February) will mark Children’s Mental Health Week (CMHW) and our teachers are preparing a week of fun to encourage the children to explore different activities that are beneficial for their wellbeing. This introductory video explains the theme ‘Express Yourself’ encouraging children to express their feelings through creative activities. You can also find below some suggested activities below from our local Sustrans colleagues that you may wish to try yourselves. Please do share with us any photographs/videos of you doing these (or other) activities.