Mental Health Awareness Week
13th – 19th May 2024
Mental Health Awareness Week is organised by the Mental Health Foundation and is taking place from 13th-19th May, 2024. This year’s theme is ‘Movement: Moving more for our mental health.’
Being active is important for our mental health, so the aim of this Mental Health Awareness Week is to help people to find moments for movement in their daily routines.
There are so many things you can do support good mental health: from movement, to spending time in nature, getting enough sleep, spending time doing things you love…and, our favourite, kindness!
Kindness and Mental Health
Why Kindness?
Kindness is a simple way to help EVERYONE. When we are kind to each other, it helps us to feel connected, which means we forge new friendships or deepen existing ones. Research has also shown that when we’re kind, when someone is kind to us or even if we just witness kindness, our bodies release feel-good hormones which lift our mood, giving us what’s known as a ‘Helper’s High’. It’s also been shown that people who are kind have much lower anxiety levels, age more slowly and have healthier hearts. Kindness isn’t just a nice thing to do, but can help us improve our own mental health and wellbeing, while helping others at the same time. And Mental Health Awareness Week is a perfect time to start!
Mental Health Awareness Week Virtual Assembly
We will be hosting a live virtual assembly for Mental Health Awareness Week.
Date: 13th May 2024
Time: 1.30pm
Suitable for: KS1 and 2
Mental Health Awareness Week
Resources for Teachers
Lesson Plans
We have a range of free video lesson plans focussed on all aspects of kindness, which are a great resource for Mental Health Awareness Week. They cover topics such as the impact kindness has on our physical and mental health, the importance of self-kindness, and how kindness can help us connect with others. Our lesson plans are designed for Key Stage 1 & 2, and meet many of the aims and objectives of the PSHE curriculum.
Self-Kindness Tips for Children
Our Self-Kindness page is all about why it’s so importance to be kind to our minds. Read 10 things we can do to help look after our mental health.
Visit our Self-Kindness page
Resources for children
Kids’ Kindness Club
Join our free Kids’ Kindness Club and you will receive a fortnightly email newsletter with Kindness Challenge, kind stories, competitions, quizzes, activities and the chance to earn your Kindness Badge and win prizes!
This week in our Kids’ Kindness Club, we are talking about Mental Health Awareness Week, with a Kindness Challenge for children to complete our Positive Self-Talk activity sheet.
Kindness Calendar
Our Kindness Calendar can help you to get into kind habits – you’ll be spreading kindness for a whole month! Activities include being kind to yourself, being kind to others and being kind to the planet.
Kindness Books
Browse a selection of some of our favourite kind books.
Browse Kindness Books
You can find more free teaching resources here.