Children’s Mental Health Week: How Can We Help Young People Get to Know Themselves?

It’s Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme for 2025 is “Know Yourself, Grow Yourself”.

Student wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do at Smoothwall. In this article we show our support for Children’s Mental Health Week by sharing tips for schools and parents on how to help young people develop their self-awareness in order to build resilience, grow and thrive.

1. Encourage self-reflection

Understanding who we are starts with self-reflection. It’s surprisingly easy to go through life making snap decisions, experiencing complex feelings and acting on impulses without acknowledging the true motivations behind them. Self-reflection enables young people to better understand their interests and needs, and in turn, how to accommodate them in a healthy way.

How to get started:

• Use visual cues such as coloured cards to help students recognise and label their feelings in response to different stimuli

• Hold creative sessions with activities such as free drawing or mindful colouring, which allow students to express their feelings through art

• Schedule mini-journalling sessions at the end of each week where students finish prompts such as “Something that made me feel proud this week was…”

2. Facilitate communication

Communication is key in promoting self-expression and providing a support system for young people to work through feelings that are confusing or distressing. Openly discussing their thoughts and needs helps children to better understand themselves. Not only does this aid personal growth, but it also puts children in a stronger position to be able to advocate for themselves in the future.

How to get started:

• Establish safe, non-judgemental spaces, like a school-run forum or DSL’s office, where students feel comfortable sharing their feelings and experiences

• Set aside specific periods in the week or month where students can discuss a topic of their choice or a lesson that particularly resonated with them

• Consider sharing an (age-appropriate) anecdote or experience as an adult that demonstrates the power of knowing yourself

3. Share feedback

It’s important for students to get used to both giving and receiving feedback.   Whether it’s positive reinforcement that helps highlight a strength or constructive criticism that supports growth, feedback plays an important role in self-development. Reflecting on qualities they admire or dislike in others can also encourage students to consider how their own behaviour affects the world around them.

How to get started:

• Use group work as an opportunity for students to reflect on and share the  positive traits they recognise and appreciate in their peers

• Have gratitude boxes in classrooms where students can post messages about a person or thing they’re grateful for, to be read out at the end of the week

• Ask students to pick a weekly/monthly self-improvement goal - keep them simple, clear and achievable, e.g., reduce screen time by 10 minutes a day

4. Introduce a wellbeing platform

Wellbeing platforms, such as Smoothwall Pulse, amplify the student voice by connecting with young people where they feel comfortable - via their devices. They provide students with a channel to process their feelings, ask for help and share praise for others. At the same time, these platforms offer school leaders visibility of wellbeing at an individual, class, year group and institution level. 

How wellbeing platforms help students to know and grow themselves:

• Self-reflection: Weekly check-ins prompt students to regularly evaluate their current mental, social and physical wellbeing 

• Communication: Students are given the opportunity to easily and discreetly request help in the form of a one-to-one conversation with a trusted adult

• Feedback: Each Pulse check-in ends with the option to share gratitude for another student or teacher and view any shout-outs they have received

Children’s Mental Health Week provides an important reminder of the various challenges impacting young people’s development and the vital role schools, parents and guardians play in nurturing their mental health. 

You can show your support by donating to Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week fundraiser here. 

Essential reads hand-picked for you...

• Anti-Bullying Strategies: How Gratitude Can Promote a School Culture of Kindness and Respect
• How Boston High School Established a Whole School Approach to Wellbeing
• DSL Insights: Key Strategies for Measuring Student Wellbeing in Schools