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Mental Health Week

This week at George Spicer the children have been learning about anxiety and strategies we can use to support our mental health. Each year group has used a book to help them to understand what anxiety means and how we can overcome and manage worrying thoughts and feelings.

Please ask your child about what they have been learning about this week, the story they have heard and the activities they have completed to support their mental health.  It might be a great starting point for them to vocalise their feelings and worries.  Here are a couple of tips to get you started!

Tips and strategies to support children with anxiety:

Link for finger breathing  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSgOW879jjA

Watch the animal in the tree breathing and tracing his finger up and down each part of his hand. Try and join in with the animal and focus on your breath in order to calm your mind and reduce anxious thoughts.

Link for Bucket activity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBvCjnH5-u0

Watch the video with your children to help them understand how stress and worries can 'fill their bucket' and make them feel anxious. You could even use a real-life bucket and fill it with balls or screwed up paper to represent and talk about things that worry them. Then discuss how you can find ways to empty the worries in the bucket, by taking part in relaxing and enjoyable activities such as sharing a book, playing a game, talking to a friend or having a lovely warm bath.

Attendance week ending 14/10/2021

Whole school : 91.27%   Lates 65

Best attendance : 1^st Apache 97.61%  2nd Sioux 97.05%  3^rd Theseus97.29%

Punctuality: 1^st Sioux 99.70% 2^nd Bluebell & Sparrow 99.65% 3^rd Osiris 99.46%

Reception

As part of Well-Being Week, Reception were very lucky to have a visit from an author, Jodie Webber! She is a parent in Reception who she has written two books on anxiety and how to meditate for children. Her 4-year-old daughter helped her to write the books. The children were enthralled by the stories of, 'Mystic Bunny Boy.' As they listened, Jodie taught the children how to use the colours of the rainbow to relax. They particularly enjoyed the deep breathing activities included in the story and as these pictures show, they thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Thank you Mrs Webber.

Please see Jodie's story below...

It was late in 2019 that my daughter Bobbie grabbed my face in her hands and said ‘Mystic Bunny Boy’ – Just that, really loudly! I had no idea what she was talking about. Neither did her nursery. It was something she would do repeatedly - my mum intuition knew it was something I needed to listen to!

I used to tell Bobbie a rainbow meditation story before bed that I had created, and it always helped her stay calm and have a restful sleep.  I realised that ‘Mystic Bunny Boy’ was her trying to create a character for our story together, which was amazing!

I kept the book in my head, and it wasn’t until summer 2020 that I put the wheels in motion… With lockdown affecting so many people’s mental health, I thought perhaps our little story could help parents and children alike - the time was right for us to publish, and the result was Mystic Bunny Boy Walks The Rainbow. 

 Since then, we've also published Mystic Bunny Boy Steps Out of Time, focussing on anxieties that might be felt around starting or going to school, and a technique wrapped in a story to combat that. 

Bobbie and I are now on a mission to help as many people as we can through sharing our story, and our books.  Both are available on Amazon, the links are on our website - www.mysticbunnyboy.com 

 We wish you a calm and happy weekend.

Year 2

On Monday, Year 2 had a visit from our school community police officer, PC Simon Odong.  He taught the children all about his role as a metropolitan police officer and presented his workshop about 'Stranger danger and personal safety'. The children learned how to keep themselves safe when playing in the park and traveling to and from school. They asked him lots of questions and thoroughly enjoyed learning about the work of a police officer in Enfield.

A message from PC Odong:

Just to inform you that Enfield have a Volunteer Police cadets which runs every Tuesdays and Thursdays at various locations. This is available to anyone 10 years old and above. If you are interested and would like to apply, please contact the office for an application form.

Year 3 

For the past two weeks in PSHE, Year 3 have been thinking about how we can make people in our community feel welcome. We discussed a letter from a 'new student' who was going to join our school and thought about what we could do to make him feel less anxious and more welcome. We wrote a letter back to the student to tell him why he shouldn't worry about joining a new school.

This also linked to our learning for Mental Health Week when we discussed what anxiety is and how we can manage feelings of anxiety. We created worry monsters to help us think about our worries. Later in the week we are going to be discussing how different scenarios make us feel and how we can manage our emotions in different scenarios.

Year 5 

This week in Year 5, we focused on Mental Health Awareness Week and the importance of looking after our mental health. We discussed anxiety, our own worries and experiences with anxiety and how we could overcome these feelings of worry and use strategies to support our wellbeing. We first wrote a class poem about what anxiety meant to us. We then discussed and shared ways we cope with anxiety and how we can use certain coping strategies to overcome feelings of immense worry. 

Finally, we read The Boy, The Fox, The Mole and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy, a book of inspirational paintings and delicate calligraphic text which celebrate the values of kindness, compassion and resilience. In small groups, we discussed the illustrations and considered why Mackesy created such a thought-provoking and empowering illustrative book and delved into what each quote could teach us about kindness, resilience and determination. Using Macksey's beautiful illustrations, we created our own ink illustrations and quotes.

In Art this term, we have been studying the French artist Henri Matisse’s and focusing on his abstract collage, Icarus, created in 1947. The collage is based on the Greek tragedy, ‘The Fall of Icarus,’ about a mortal (Icarus) who defied his father and flew too close to the Sun, leading to his tragic demise. We researched Matisse’s artistic style and were able to appreciate and to his own struggles throughout his life. Inspired by Matisse’s developing physical disabilities, we discussed how Article 23 of the UNCRC, (Children and young people with a disability) ensures that children have the right to special care and education. This allowed us to appreciate the challenges Matisse faced when creating, Icarus.  

During out art lessons, we analysed geometric and organic shapes and discussed how different shapes can symbolise and represent different emotions. We also considered how warm and cold colours can depict mood and atmosphere in a piece of art and how choosing the correct colours, tones and shapes were vital in depicting the feeling of hope and aspirations in our own collages. Next, we traced over the organic and geometric shapes and used the tracings to accurately cut out coloured card. We then layered our colourful shapes over one another to create our final design.  

 

 

Year 6 

This week, as part of Mental Health week, Year 6 took part in an online lesson about emotions. We looked at a range of emotions and when they present themselves and what we can do when these emotions feel uncomfortable for us. We then thought of a time when we had experienced a range of emotions and presented this information, explaining how we felt and why. A huge well done to Year 6 for participating in the live lesson so well. 

Some half term activities for you...

St Andrews Sports Camp, run by The Elms www.elmsholidaycamps.co.uk 

 

 

Black History Month at George Spicer 

As a school, we are incredibly proud to offer our pupils a diverse and engaging curriculum, which hopes to reflect our school community therefore we champion Black History Month and advocate what it stands for. This October, the children have already had an assembly on the reasons why we celebrate Black History – focusing on how Black history has either been ignored or distorted in the past and how we aim to rectify this. There will be subsequent assemblies on lesser known famous black individuals such as Shaka Zulu, Troussaint Louverture and Mansa Musa.

Year groups have also been allocated a famous black woman to do an individual homework project on. The winners will be chosen by the School Council and receive a copy of the book 'Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History'. One of our other aims at George Spicer is to have a range of books available that reflect the diversity of our school, therefore we have invested in improving our class libraries to include stories written by and featuring people of colour. However, we don’t want the learning to stop at the end of the school day, therefore, please follow this link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/

Celebrating black authors:

Each week, in October, we will have a recommendation of both an EYFS/KS1 and KS2 book from the teachers. The teachers will choose a book they love that is written by a black author. By doing this, we hope to celebrate diversity within our reading choices. Please read below this week's teacher recommendations:

EYFS/KS1:

Shine By Sarah Asoquo
Reviewed by Miss Cunningham

Shine is a heart-warming story about a little boy called Kai who is excited to return to school after the summer holidays. However, when he returns, he finds that he is mocked by his peers for being different. Kai begins to doubt himself and feels worried about his special qualities. 

Kai speaks to his mother and with her help he starts to realise that he is valuable and important! His mother explains to him that all the stars and the moon are different, but they all shine beautifully in the sky. Kai begins to recognise his positive qualities and decides to use them to shine! 

Shine is a poignant story that encourages young readers to celebrate diversity and to take pride in their individual qualities. This book deals with issues around self-confidence, self-esteem and forgiveness in a manner that is accessible even for our youngest learners. 

KS2:
New Kid by Jerry Craft
Reviewed by Miss Foster

This book was actually recommended to me by a child in my class. After he explained what it was about I was intrigued and had to read it, and I’m glad I did! New Kid is about a young boy in America whose parents send him to a prestigious private school, instead of the art school of his dreams. He ends up being one of the only children from a black background in his year group and is finding it hard to fit in – torn between two worlds and not quite knowing where he fits.

This engaging and emotional story is explored through humour, heartbreak and contemporary challenges to encourage the reader to empathise with Jordan and his struggles and emotions throughout. The storyline and book itself are extremely engaging and is illustrated in a comic style throughout, which makes it eye-catching and immersive. The illustrations are dynamic and expressive through the use of emojis and imaginative comedic elements to appeal to a wider audience.

I believe this book addresses and explores such important topics in an insightful way. The topics it explores are relevant issues that we should all be aware of. Jordan is a resilient and brave character when facing adversity, something that we can all learn from and channel when things are tough.  

Pets as Therapy visits to George Spicer have started

Last week we had a visit from our dog friend PK and his owner, who work for the Charity Pets As Therapy. They are coming in to visit some Year 3 pupils on a monthly basis, to support children with reading, an intervention called Read2dogs. The scheme helps children in a therapeutic way, communicate and read.

For more information about the charity https://petsastherapy.org/