The Return of Time to Talk Mental Health Workshops

After a break in 2021, we were excited to run our annual Mental Health school workshops last month, in line with the Time to Talk day which took place on 3rd February.

Time to Talk is a national awareness raising day encouraging everyone to have conversations about their mental health to help create supportive communities. It’s important that people feel comfortable talking about their mental wellbeing as 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health issue at some point, and it could be argued that these conversations can never be had too early.  

The sessions, facilitated by volunteers from our corporate member organisations, were run in primary schools and were targeted at 7-11 year olds, the theme being around ‘mentally healthy schools’. As part of the workshop, the pupils were asked about makes them feel happy, safe and calm both in their personal lives and at school, and what more could their schools do to support their wellbeing.

“Having volunteers from the wider community run these workshops is a great opportunity for schools to continue to raise awareness around mental health and its importance. The activities allow pupils the space to think about the different areas that support their mental health in a fun and engaging way. Working with volunteers in this way helps to reduce stigma and supports children to understand that positive mental health is important to everyone.”  – Louise Jones, Health Improvement Adviser for Mental Health at Islington Council.

It was so fantastic to see the pupils’ engagement in the workshop, most of them already having some knowledge of what mental health is and ways to look after it. Some pupils were even keen to share their own experiences of ill mental health, demonstrating how far we have come as a society in the last few years.

We also loved hearing children’s ideas for what a perfect mentally healthy school would include, with some suggestions being more feasible than others. These ranged from book corners, fidgets and football pitches to swimming pools, zoos and spas, to name just a few!

 These workshops are always very well received by the children, school staff members and volunteers alike, and this year was no exception. 

“The children had some very imaginative ideas about what would improve their happiness and wellbeing at school.  I particularly liked the suggestion of a chocolate fountain – I might take that one back to the office!” – said one of the volunteers.

Similarly, wellbeing leads spoke of the importance of running these sessions at primary schools:

“We signed up for these workshops with the hope that it would support our children, especially our Year 4 classes, who we felt could most benefit from talking about their mental health. It was really pleasing to hear how much the children got to express themselves and have discussions on this topic.  It was such a successful experience, and we hope that these workshops can run with other classes in the future.” – Dominic Ebassi, Pastoral Manager and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Moreland Primary School.

Overall, the programme in February was so well received by all participants, that we decided to run it again in May, to commemorate the Mental Health Awareness Week between 9-15 May – and we absolutely cannot wait!

You can read the report for the February 2022 programme here.

If you are interested in taking part in mental health workshops with us, please contact marija.mikne@thebigalliance.org.uk.