Our traditional Thackley ‘Happy Week’ will take place the week beginning 30th June. The idea of our Happy Week arose in 2022 with a vision of giving our children a fun exciting week full of ideas and activities to support their mental health and well-being.
This year we will focus on giving children transferable and usable activities to help their health and wellbeing that they can apply themselves. The majority of our children will often ‘wind down’ by using a screen – gaming or watching a tablet or TV. According to research by internetmatters.org, nearly 30% of children spend 3-4 hours on devices every day. Screens can have a positive role - they can help children learn and practise new skills, connect with friends and family and explore the wider world. However too much screen time can leave children feeling irritable, suffering with headaches or eye strain and interfere with their sleep pattern. There is an increasing amount of research proving that screen time is having a detrimental effect on children’s social skills, language development and ability to regulate their own emotions and their overall mental health. Experts recommend balance and this Happy Week we want to try to raise awareness about over-use of screens whilst giving children a bank of activities they can use as an alternative to screen time.
Each day of Happy Week will have a different focus, with some activities going on throughout the week.
Monday – Games
Monday will be a day of games where we will be teaching children to play family board and card games including Uno, Jenga and Dobble as well as ‘paper’ games such as Squares and Hangman. Outside we will also be trying to widen the children’s repertoire of playtime games by teaching them some old favourites like ‘What’s the Time Mr Wolf?’ as well as some new ones. Alongside this, we will be talking to the children about how to deal with conflicts that arise when they are playing games and how best to deal with them.
Tuesday - Play
Tuesday will be action packed with the large inflatables visiting once again. Please ensure children are wearing PE kits on this day. Due to the risk of friction burns from the inflatables you may wish to ensure your child is wearing long sleeves and jogging bottoms rather than shorts. We will also be taking part in a series of challenges in class to build and encourage teamwork as well as show that solving challenges can boost our feelings of accomplishment and pride in ourselves.
Wednesday – Art and Music
Wednesday will focus on art and music and how these can help to boost our mental wellbeing. We will be using lots of the instruments in school as well as our voices. Our art work will focus on simple, fun activities that can be carried out just with paper and pencils or felt tips to make them easy to recreate another time for the children.
Thursday – The Outdoors
Getting out into nature is well known to boost people’s mood so we want to take the children to Buck Woods. We will be showing the children simple activities they can do out and about to entertain themselves and have fun as well as simply enjoying being amongst nature. Please can you ensure that children are wearing PE kits on this day with sensible footwear - trainers or walking shoes would be appropriate. Children will also need to wear waterproof coats, sun cream, sun hats etc. depending on the weather that day. Should you not wish for your child to visit the woods on this day then please contact your child’s class teacher.
Friday – Happy Festival
Friday will be our Happy Festival. We would like children to wear their favourite outfit or bright colours - anything that makes them feel happy and comfortable - to celebrate the end of a great week! We will be having a whole school picnic this day so the Friday school lunch option that week will consist of a sandwich, carrot/cucumber sticks, oaty biscuit, fruit and crisps.
We hope the week will be lots of fun and the children will have a great time, whilst also finding a few new activities that they can recreate themselves in the future. By giving the children more ideas for how they can relax and spend their time, then hopefully the idea of screens may be pushed a little lower down their list.
More and more, schools are observing the negative effects that excessive screen time is having on children. It’s impacting the development of their social skills, language, ability to concentrate, and sleep patterns. It’s also contributing to increased emotional outbursts, anxiety, social withdrawal, irritability, and aggression.
Here at Thackley, we fully understand how challenging it can be to manage screen time at home—especially when children are constantly requesting it. However, it’s more important than ever that we work together to address this issue and find a healthier balance for the wellbeing of our children.
Please explore internetmatters.org to explore the issue of screen time and the balancing act many parents are currently facing. It may be a helpful resource to support ongoing discussions at home.