Mental Health Awareness Week 2021
For Mental Health Awareness Week we are sharing activities from Bottisham Community Primary School and raising awareness of how nature can be helpful in supporting good mental health. Many of our other schools are also raising awareness of mental health through activities with their pupils, on their websites and through their social media accounts.
This week, Bottisham Community Primary School began with a whole school assembly finding out about how connecting with nature can have a positive impact on our mental health.
Additionally, each day we are sharing tips and ideas as follows:
- Try to make a habit of connecting with nature every day. Stop to listen to birdsong, smell the freshly cut grass, take care of a house plant, notice the trees and flowers around you. Take a moment to appreciate these simple connections.
-
Another great way to connect with nature is for your family to become expert tree trackers. This is possible with the free tree ID App from The Woodland Trust. It features over 70 British trees and helps you learn how to identify them by their twigs, bark, leaves and fruits.
-
Eat Well: there are strong links between what we eat and how we feel, for example, caffeine and sugar are well-known to have an immediate effect.But food can also have a long-lasting effect on your mental health. Your brain needs a mix of nutrients to stay healthy and function well, just like the other organs in your body.A diet that is good for your physical health is also good for your mental health. A healthy diet includes:• Lots of different types of fruit and vegetables• Wholegrain cereals and bread• Nuts and seeds• Dairy products• Oily fish• Plenty of water.
There are more ideas of how to connect with nature on the the Mental Health Foundation website. We are also posting how to #connectwithnature daily on our social media pages @AnglianLearning