Fenham pupils express themselves

Everyone looked a little different at a Fenham school one Friday, when staff and pupils rounded off Children’s Mental Health Week with a special initiative to emphasise the importance of showing feelings.

At St George’s Catholic Primary School, it was Inside Out Day, where children and staff members arrived wearing their clothing inside out to celebrate the importance of self-expression.

“Everyone at St George’s went ‘Inside Out’ – wearing their clothes inside out to represent getting our feeling from inside of us out into the open,” said Christine Lawson, Mental Health and Wellbeing Lead at the school, which is part of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust.

“This helped to spark conversations and highlighted the importance of talking.”

The rest of the week shared the same focus on mental health, with the children enjoying a range of activities linked to the promotion of mental health and wellbeing, where they learnt to explore emotions and connections, and to build resilience and self-esteem.

There was also a whole-school assembly, where Miss Lawson spoke about Children’s Mental Health Week and the importance of mental health and wellbeing.

“This helped us to recognise and understand our feelings and emotions,” she explained. “We learned that we must ask for help and support when we need it; we discussed who we can seek support from; and how to react to the emotions we feel, especially when we are overwhelmed. We also know how important it is to listen to each other, and recognise feelings in others.”

Children’s Mental Health Week was launched in 2015 by the charity Place2Be, which has been providing mental health services in schools for over 30 years, and supported more than 45,000 children and young people in the last academic year.

The theme for 2025 was ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’, with a focus on promoting self-awareness to enhance resilience and encourage growth – which fit perfectly with St George’s Inside Out Day.

“St George’s prides itself on delivering a strong PSHE [Personal, Social, Health and Economic] curriculum, where we focus on the mental health and wellbeing of the whole school community – pupils, staff, and families,” continued Miss Lawson.

“Schemes are followed and strategies are embedded throughout each year group. Activities and age-appropriate information is accessed using the online app Zumos, which helps pupils to understand how they are feeling, and complete various tasks to help them manage and deal with these feelings.

“At St George’s, we know it’s OK not to feel OK, and we always have someone to talk to.”