The Rainbow Journal (My Journey...Walking The Path Together) has been created by Gloucestershire Healthy Living and Learning (GHLL) to give pupils the opportunity to reflect and share some of the often overwhelming emotions and experiences they will have had since school closed, and may continue to experience this term. Pupils in Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 started this journal last week (if they had PSHE on their timetables - optional if they did not).

The task last week was to learn about and think about the 5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing (outlined by the NHS). These are Be Active, Give, Take Notice, Connect, and Learn. For each of these, pupils thought about examples of how they did this and how it made them feel.

Pupils were asked to think about times when they felt sad and how they lifted their spirits. They were told that every emotion is important and that it is okay to feel ‘down’ sometimes but then do something healthy to cheer yourself up.

Here are some strategies our pupils wanted to share…

• Smash my punching bag
• Be with my family
• Play table tennis outside
• Go for a walk with someone else
• Discuss my problem with others
• Think hard about why I am feeling down in my head to then work out how to stop feeling like that
• Get a good night's sleep in order to feel better in the morning
• Playing with my dog
• Playing FIFA 20
• Playing football
• Playing Match Attax with my brother
• Watching TV
• Reading books
• Relaxing.

Thank you Sam. Harvey and Alexander for sharing your really helpful strategies with us!

You can find more information about the 5 Steps to Mental Wellbeing and other strategies, here https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/improve-mental-wellbeing/

In the first week of their Rainbow Journal, one of the activities was to design their own front cover, here is Harvey’s brilliant design, thank you for sharing this with us Harvey!