St Vigor and St John Church School and The Mill Nursery
being adventurous,
being ethical,
being connected,
being unique
Wellbeing Page
Forest School
The benefits of Forest School at SVSJ...
- we are outside
- we take risks in a safe environment
- we work as a team
- learn about the natural world around us
We embrace our cornerstones - adventurous, ethical and connected.
Forest School Fun
Look at our lovely messages from Rowan Park, Residential Home, Stratton after some of the children from Bryony visited during Wellbeing Week.
Dear St Vigor and St John Church of England Primary School pupils, The Somerset Wellbeing Framework, Quality Assurance Group (QAG), have reviewed your scrapbook submissions and we are very pleased to share that we would like to offer your setting an award for the following - Pupil participation and engagement
A Note from Mrs Sheppard
Wow, what a week! This final week of term has been jam-packed with activities to promote healthy habits for good mental health. We were lucky to have visiting children's author Claire Luther talk to parents and staff about supporting children to recognise their emotions and how to work through them. The Little Paws Hotel are a series of books which help young children explore their big emotions and get conversations started early. We have been sharing some of them in class this week.
In addition to this, the I Can and I Am Bus has been here most of the week, making pizzas with the children and providing valuable tools to help improve self-esteem and maintain good mental health.
The week has focussed on SHEDS (Sleep. Habits. Exercise. Diet. Social) and the importance of having all five areas met to have a healthy body and mind. We hope the children have gone away with some self-help strategies and ideas to flourish in the fast-paced and challenging world we live in. Thank you to all the parents and carers who were able to pop along and support some of the events planned this week and a huge thanks to our mental health lead, Mrs Dutton, for her hard work in planning such a brilliant week for our children. Thank you to all the people who came into school to work with our children - we are so grateful for such a supportive community.
To kick off the week, all classes utilised our safe, secure space for some physical activity. With The Golden Mile, exercise is simple.
Children and staff walked, jogged or ran around the school, at whatever pace felt comfortable to them. Regardless of their relationship with physical activity, The Golden Mile was an inclusive way to promote healthy habits, improve wellbeing and to promote a sense of belonging to the whole SVSJ Community by all joining in.
Children's stories for head and heart matters
Young children can struggle to talk about big emotions that are part of their everyday life. The beautifully illustrated rhyming children's books are relatable and well researched helping young children to understand themselves better.
The stories provide useful ways to think their emotions and actions through, as well as get meaningful conversations started at an early age. Although they are aimed at children 3 - 8 years old, every class shared one of Clare's books and thoughtfully discussed the sometimes sensitive content.
THANK YOU, TESCO
Tesco, Midsomer Norton, very kindly donated a whole trolley full of fruit and vegetables. Elder chopped this up and made a healthy rainbow. They ALL loved trying new, healthy snacks and sharing these with Dogwood. At the end of the day, Margaret, from Wraparound Club, made the leftovers into a delicious soup for the staff to have for lunch the next day.
Happy Boxes
Key Stage 2 children decorated shoe boxes and created their own, unique happy boxes. These were shared with other members of the class.
Mindfulness experience with Tracy
The I Can and I Am Bus
The Bus - I Can & I Am (icanandiam.com)
We were lucky enough to be the first school for the start of Bus 1's journey and then again, for Bus 2. The children all enjoyed their time on the bus and we even managed to make time for some children from The Mill to have a little look around.
James Shone came into Elder and told us about his experiences over the last ten years. The children were engaged and asked sensitive questions, to which James kindly gave us honest answers. The children showed empathy when listening to him sharing his struggles.
Worry Monsters
Arum, Bryony, Campion, Dogwood and Gentian all made a Worry Monster out of clay. As our theme for the week was, "Our Voice Matters", every monster had a large mouth. In Arum, the children told us that they fed their worries to the monster and the monster ate them!
Visiting Potters
Suzanne and Jill came to work with Elder and Foxglove. Their focus was on the fact that we are unique (one of our four cornerstones) but we all share emotions. Each child made their own handprint in clay and then surrounded this by their five emotions. What colour shape do you think represents each emotion?
