Newland School for Girls receives first Drop-Down Day from Hull MHST

Our Mental Health Support Teams work in schools and colleges to support children and young people with their mental health and emotional wellbeing. This year the MHSTs will be delivering early intervention for mild to moderate mental health needs in thirty-five schools across Hull.

Our Mental Health Support Team have begun delivering their school drop down days with the first of this year’s taking place on Friday at Newland School for Girls. The session was delivered to over 150 year 7s and was focused around the five steps we can all take to improving our mental health and wellbeing. Learn more about the five steps on the NHS website 5 steps to mental wellbeing - NHS.

Step One: Connect

The young people played Wellbeing Jenga which involves group communication to complete tasks such as ‘challenge the person opposite you to guess what animal you’re thinking of, just by describing it’.

Step Two: Be active

Stress Buckets were used to demonstrate how taking on too much stress can cause us to overload. One young person said:

 “When I get stressed, I get really angry and take it out on people I shouldn’t”.

When asked what causes stress in the young people they responded with answers like ‘school, siblings, parents, and teachers’ – perhaps this was indicative of the setting. The young people were then taught how physical activity can reduce stress and opened discussions about what form of exercise the young people take day to day.

Step Three: Give

This activity focused on affirmation – affirmations are positive statements that can help you challenge and overcome self-esteem issues and negative thoughts. Each young person received multiple positive statements about themselves, some examples are: your sense of humour, you’re the best sports player in school, your sick dance moves, you’re always kind to people, you always share your sharpies. All the young people agreed the activity made them feel good about themselves and one young person felt she has made a new friend.

Step Four: Take notice

Taking notice of your surroundings is a practice the Mental Health Support Team teach as a grounding technique. This activity encouraged group discussion to identify what the young people could see, hear, smell, touch and taste on the activity table. It was clear the group collectively didn’t like the smell of coffee!

Step Five: Keep learning

The young people played a game based on an escape room experience which required them to solve a series of puzzles within a certain amount of time to accomplish a goal; in this case to open a briefcase full of sweets! This was by far the most engaged with activity and saw some children really come out of their shell.

To learn more about our early intervention Mental Health Support Team visit Mental Health Support Team Hull.