World Mental Health Day Activities – Davington Primary School

Those who may be struggling with mental health problems exist in our everyday lives; this can be within our families, workplaces, and communities. The World Health Organisation recognises World Mental Health Day (WMHD) on 10 October every year. This gives everyone an opportunity to talk about mental health, and prompt conversations on ways we can look after both our own mental health and the mental health of others.

One of the key priorities of the Kent Cricket Community Trust (KCCT) is to support well-being and mental health, and we have recently partnered with Kent County Council’s Public Health Campaign – Release the Pressure. Through this partnership the trust has been able to provide well-being bags to participants attending events and projects. Further details on this campaign as well as other mental health links can be found at https://www.kentcricket.co.uk/news/kent-cricket-community-trust/world-mental-health-day-10-october/

KCCT and Kent Cricket’s Community Team worked together to develop a cricket well-being activity that is a familiar game for young people – a fortune teller, which has been used in playgrounds for decades. This activity was designed to be a part of coaching sessions with young people enabling them to link well-being with playing cricket and the positive impact that it can have.

On Monday we went into Davington Primary School to conduct our usual Chance to Shine programme but as it was World Mental Health day we wanted to show our support and raise awareness of the day, something that Davington Primary School strongly supported. At the start of the lesson with the Year 6 classes we explored ideas around Mental Health using the well-being fortune teller activity. The children had a go at making their own fortune teller, with some of the fortunes linking to well-being and cricket. For example, one was ‘breathe in for 4 and out for 6’ with 4 and 6 being key numbers in the game of cricket.

These activities highlighted the importance of physical health and exercise in maintaining good mental health, as well as discussing topics using the context of cricket, such as: resilience, performing under pressure and positive-growth mindsets. We then did some outdoor cricket activities linked to well-being. The connection between sport and positive mental health is an extremely important one and it was great to be able to put some of the classroom-based learning into practice during the cricket session outside afterwards.

You can download our cricket wellbeing activity for World Mental Health Day, ideal for young people aged between 5 and 12, below.

https://www.kentcricket.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/KCCT-WMHD-Fortune-Teller.pdf