Dear Wildcat PARENTS. EDUCATORS and STUDENTS,
With the recent news of extending online learning, our school board's Mental Health Lead has compiled a number of resources that would be helpful for everyone.
Attached are the following,
1. Self-Care 101 for STUDENTS
2. Reaching Out
3. Mental Health and COVID-19 for CAREGIVERS
The board recognizes that the extension of online learning is quite unsettling for many students and their families. They also recognize that uncertainty and isolation can have an impact on the mental health and wellbeing of our students.
Also, in an effort to support our students, the board will be sharing 'age-appropriate' calming strategies with educators to try with their students that are very concise, easy to incorporate, and evidence based.
Attached are examples of the first calming skill - BELLY BREATHING, every week, we will look at another skill.
They are fairly straight forward and include a couple of very short YouTube videos demonstrating the calming skills. Learning and practicing these calming strategies should only take about 4-5 minutes per class. Our goal is to practice the skill each day, until a new skill is given.
These strategies can be used at the beginning of class to help ground students before learning, in the middle to help reset and take a break, or at the end to support transitions from academics.
The goal is that every student in our board has the opportunity to learn and practice these strategies when they are regulated. Practicing these strategies when calm will allow students the ability to recall and utilize these skills when they are managing big feelings.
Additionally, the same skill will be shared across the board so that every educator at each of our schools will be working on and mastering the same skill, at the same time.
WE ALSO ENCOURAGE "YOU", THE PARENTS and CAREGIVERS TO TRY THESE FOR YOURSELVES :)
Be kind to yourselves and each other Wildcats!