St Monica's Visit

On the eve of Mental Health Awareness Week; such a lovely visit to St Monica’s RC Primary School, Hackney. 

*St Monica’s are part of the excellent Lux Mundi Catholic Academy Trust. 

Thank you to Deputy Head, Ms Rodrigues for arranging my visit and welcoming me. Thank you also to Head of School, Mrs Jallow for sanctioning my visit and AmplifiED Schools Marketing for introducing me. 

08:50 - before my sessions began, as I set up in the hall, children were arriving at school; as they passed through, they all politely greeted me. One girl stopped and thanked me for visiting, and said she was very excited for her turn to attend. 

Such a positive reflection of impeccable behaviour and manners. 

In one of the sessions, in response to ‘how do you show you’re being a good friend?’, a year 3 girl said, ‘collaboration’. A mature answer indeed; I was later to find out from her teacher that they had been exploring expansive vocabularies and looking at different words for ‘teamwork and cooperation’ - what a great example of appropriately using and understanding a newly learnt word. 

In the session with years 5 & 6, when discussing sharing ‘Bother-bugs’ (worries), a year 6 student expressed that, ‘if you don’t share your worries, they can take over all of your thoughts and distract you from learning and stop you from being happy’. This articulation certainly resonates, as we approach #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek. If ‘Jessie and JoJo’ can encourage just one child to share a worry, then my visit has been worthwhile. 

Finally, many thanks to those parents and staff who supported the charities, NSPCC and WIRES Ltd , through their purchase of ‘Jessie and JoJo’.