1 – 7 February 2021
#ChildrensMentalHealthWeek
Like most of the schools across the country, at The Beacon Centre, we will be completing a whole range of activities at both the Primary and Secondary sites. This is to help encourage positive conversations around Mental Health and to help improve all of our mental health. This year the theme for Children’s Mental Health Week is self expression.
What is Self-Expression, and why is it important?
Self-expression is about communicating your individuality. This can be through words, clothing and hairstyle, or through art forms such as writing, drawing, music and dance.
Self-expression can help you to showcase your true self – your story, your thoughts, feelings and emotions. But this can also make us feel vulnerable, so you might want to take things one step at a time.
We often get told by our family, friends, school, communities and through social media how we ‘should’ look, think, speak, and act. These constant messages about what we ought to do, and who we out to be, can make it difficult to let go of expectations and express our true selves.
Self-Expression helps us connect to our true self.
Self-expression is a great way to relieve yourself of stress and free your mind. Self-expression can help you to reflect on your life, actions, decisions, relationships, beliefs, and thoughts – rather than keep them buried deep down.
Self-Expression helps us connect to each other – in good times and bad.
By expressing ourselves thoughtfully, we can better communicate, collaborate and build a community with others. At times of crisis, people come together to express themselves individually, and as a group, through the arts.
Here are some examples:
- Gareth Malone’s online choir — bringing self-isolating singers together during the Covid-19 lockdown.
- Grayson’s Art Club —a series of online masterclasses to help unleash creativity during the Covid-19 lockdown.
- BBC Lockdown Orchestra – as part of a ten-day creative challenge, nearly 1,500 members of the
- public joined the newly formed BBC Lockdown Orchestra as part of a huge virtual performance.
- Create 2030 Solidarity Art Shows – The World Health Organisation, Create2030 and a group of international working artists collaborated on a project to showcase films, music, poetry and visual art about the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Te Rito Toi — using art to help children when they first return back to school in New Zealand following a traumatic or life-changing event.
Get Involved
Why not get involved at home and send us some photographs of what you are up to at home in relation to #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek. Whether it’s dressing up, creating posters, writing stories or drawing pictures, we would love to see them and share them with the world!
You can find loads of ideas to help you get involved at the #ChildrensMentalHealthWeek website!
https://www.childrensmentalhealthweek.org.uk/parents-and-carers/
