St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”
Psalm 133.1

Children’s Mental Health Week

Highlights from Children’s Mental Health Week  5-11th February 2024

‘My Voice Matters’ 

We are thrilled to share with you the fantastic activities and initiatives that took place during Mental Health Week at our school. The enthusiasm and creativity shown by our students were truly remarkable, especially in the creation of their mental health posters. The submissions were incredible, and some of the key stage winners were displayed in Hendon Town Hall showcasing the talent and dedication of our students.

The entire school attended an assembly created by the Mental Health Champions and another assembly conducted by BICS (Barnet Integrated Clinical Services).  This assembly provided valuable strategies to support our students in managing their mental well-being effectively and getting feedback on how to hear their voice. Beech class also received a workshop from BICS focusing on positive affirmations and self-care.

Our Mental Health Champions played a pivotal role in spreading awareness. They planned and conducted workshops for KS1 classes and EYFS on the Zones of Regulation. This initiative aimed to equip our younger students with tools to understand and manage their emotions effectively.

Key Stage Two students were fortunate to receive a workshop on wellbeing and fostering a growth mindset. This insightful session was led by a past pupil, Juwon Akintunde from Challenge – Sport and Education, providing valuable perspectives and guidance on building resilience and maintaining positive mental health.

Each class in the school paired up with another class. Together, they engaged in a variety of activities such as play and talk sessions, creating expressive posters, daily mile, circle time discussions, walking and talking and guided games.

Additionally, each Key Stage focused on a specific book for the week. By delving into these narratives, students gained insights into different perspectives and developed a deeper understanding of their own emotions and explored feelings.

Miss Scelsi also wrote a blog for the Department for Education on inspiring and enabling pupil and learner voice at St Vincent’s, feel free to read it here. Place2Be have also released some top tips for families on how to talk to your child about mental health. You can find it here. Please ask us for support if you need it.

Have a look at the children who won the competition from school and Hendon Town Hall and met the Barnet Mayor.

Read the article from Barnet – https://www.barnet.gov.uk/news/barnets-artistic-pupils-show-their-creativity-childrens-mental-health-week

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Curriculum Intent

At St Vincent’s it is our INTENT is to enable ALL children to thrive through the opportunities we provide them with, in order to:

  • Live their lives by the Gospel and Vincentian values instilled in them at school.
  • Understand that everyone has the right and responsibility to live in our world constructively and ensure that we leave it in a better state than when we entered it by living and working through the principles of Catholic Social Teaching in line with the UNCRC (United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child)
  • Experience creativity across the curriculum through specialist art and dance lessons and opportunities to take part in art, music, dance and creative writing competitions.
  • Know the joy of outdoor learning, the rich biodiversity within our school grounds and locality and develop a responsibility for the environment we share as stewards.
  • Understand their place in the world, globally and locally, knowing the history of our school, Mill Hill and the Daughters of Charity and knowing where our diverse community members have their roots across the world.
  • Be ready and well-prepared for their next steps in life, having high aspirations for themselves and for others because they have experienced success and a belief in learning from mistakes.
  • Have a life-long curiosity, stimulated by the driving questions of Project Based Learning approach to the curriculum fostering inquiry and independent learning skills, which give confidence to ask big questions about the world.
  • Be literate and numerate having experienced a rich variety of texts to stimulate and excite the mind while developing skills in investigating and problem solving to enable them to excel in their future passions.
  • Be confident and happy young people that have a broad understanding and tolerance of the world and others around them with excellent communication skills honed by their experience of Restorative Justice and respect of the dignity and wishes of the individual.

Curriculum Context

St Vincent’s is a 1.5 form entry school with 285 children ranging from 4 -11. Children come predominantly from the parishes of Sacred Heart in Mill Hill and St Anthony’s in Edgware.

Children come from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds, speak 17 different languages and hail from 26 different ethnic groups. The curriculum we present, and promote, to the children is an endeavour to reflect these differences by providing opportunities to explore the different countries, languages and customs our children are part of through the projects they investigate. We have looked closely at the context of our school, the backgrounds of the children and how life is for a child growing up in North London today. We have used the underlying principles of our Catholic Faith and the example of our namesake St Vincent to create a set of values which lie at the heart of our curriculum.

We are aware of the changing nature of society and the pressures faced by young children as they enter the next stage of their education. The rise in Mental Health related issues has been widely documented across the media. Therefore, issues such as internet safety and the enormous impact across society of social media are at the forefront of our minds when planning our curriculum. With the current worldwide concerns relating to Covid 19, racial justice, equality and diversity, as well as gender and economic background, we feel it is our duty to prepare the children through a concerted focus on building independence, resilience and communication skills linked to our Vincentian Values.