Gomer Junior School pupils wear yellow to support World Mental Health Day

With Saturday (October 10) representing World Mental Health Day the pupils used Friday to launch their Hello Yellow initiative to raise money for the charity Young Minds – the UK’s leading charity in providing support for children and young people dealing with mental health problems.

Children from all year groups donated money in exchange for wearing an item of yellow clothing.

Year 6 pupil, Matthew Grygiel, 10, said: ‘It is important to speak and share bright days about mental health because it is unsettling too many young people.’

Classmate, Cadence Rooke, 10, added: ‘Mental health awareness is important because it can affect people’s daily lives.’

As well as dressing in yellow the pupils also took part in a number of activities to get them thinking about their own mental health.

Year 4 teacher and personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education lead, Laura Fry said: ‘We had a morning assembly which looked at the issue of mental health before spending the afternoon looking in more detail at the importance of mental wellbeing.

‘Year 5 and 6 pupils delved deeper into what mental health is, what the warning signs are and the importance of asking for help. The younger children looked at what emotions are and how to manage them.’

The importance of children and young peoples’ mental wellbeing has risen to even greater prominence after the disruption of lockdown in which many children spent almost six months out of the classroom.

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Laura added: ‘Since the children arrived back there has been a mixture of emotions and definitely higher levels of anxiety. We have really had to settle the children back into routine and have stressed the importance that we are all one big team here at Gomer.’

Executive headteacher, Georgina Mulhall, said: ‘Children’s mental health has always been an important part of our agenda but in many ways it is even more important which is why it has been integrated into our Restore curriculum.

‘We support a lot of charities at Gomer but this year we were particularly keen to support Young Minds.’

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