Pre-Prep Have Been Outside in the Very Fresh Air This Week

Despite the frost sparkling in the beautiful sunshine this week and the rain finally ceasing, it has been deemed the most depressing time of the year, with increased feelings of sadness, low motivation, and a lack of energy for some.

Although ‘Blue Monday’ was originally a marketing campaign by a travel company, it does provide an opportunity to raise awareness of mental health and self-care.

Children can also be affected by the cold, dark weather at this time of year. They may also find leaving their family to come to school a challenge after enjoying time together over the holidays. This can sometimes present itself in their behaviour, and having strategies in place to address this helps everyone to cope with these challenges more smoothly.

To this end, NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Maudsley Charity have created a document called ‘Families Under Pressure’, which we hope you may find useful. It contains simple tips and tricks, formulated by researchers and NHS mental health experts, which are backed by science and proven to work with families to help deal with child behaviour problems. They can be found at: Parenting Tips & Tricks - Families Under Pressure - Maudsley Charity.

Being outside in the fresh air is a key element of mental wellbeing, and we are so fortunate at Hazlegrove to have our incredible woodland and outdoor space, which we can enjoy throughout the year to support this as well as promote feelings of gratitude. The children have been very busy outside in Forest School this week, checking, restoring and securing the dormouse boxes that our current Year 4 children made when they were in the Pre-Prep. They were delighted to find evidence that something had been making a home in the boxes, so Mrs Millard set up the camera trap to see who it was. Amazingly, the boxes are home to little woodland mice and we even got to see them coming and going from their homes on the camera!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend - fingers crossed for more sunshine next week!

With best wishes,

Hannah Strugnell