On Wednesday, The Albion Foundation’s Premier League Inspires and Premier League Primary Stars programmes united for Children’s Mental Health Week, under the theme of 'Where's Your Head At?'.
Hosted at The Hawthorns in partnership with St Michael’s High School Student Voice, six primary schools were invited for a day of mental health-themed activities, allowing the pupils to harness a greater understanding of their emotions and feelings.
Kerry Whitehouse, senior mental health lead at St Michael’s High School says it was an inspiring day to see her students lead on activities.
“It’s Children’s Mental Health Week, we run a programme called wellbeing takeover week, it’s a really good way of getting people talking,” Kerry said. “We do work all year round, but this week we’re working to promote better wellbeing and this was a great chance to do that.
“We brought a team of students along that have facilitated a presentation. They’ve delivered a carousel of activities for the younger children.
“The presentation was a showcase about initiatives that they’re doing at school, that we’ve implemented there. It’s all student-led, it’s all about the importance of wellbeing and strategies to cope with mental health in their day-to-day life.
“Everyone’s had lots of fun and the primary students have been really engaged with the activities that we’ve given them.”
Following this unique event, in which Premier League Inspires staff had the opportunity to see a partner school lead on activities including a Q&A with Albion U21 players – Eleisha Edwards, mentoring and interventions coordinator at the Foundation – believes it was a fantastic day for all.
“St Michael’s have been brilliant, as individuals and as a group they’re fantastic,” Eleisha said. The way they carry themselves and spread their message and translate that to the primary school children has been brilliant.
“The primary school children will likely go to St Michael’s so it’s nice for them to know they’ve got a team to support them. They’re so professional, mature and work so hard on their projects to convey these messages.
“It’s Children’s Mental Health Week, so for every young person we work with, we want to encourage them to talk about their mental health, including us. We’ve got Kaleidoscope and SHAPE here to be able to talk to the young people as well.
“It’s really important we get everybody talking.”
Glenn Short, primary schools partnerships manager at the Foundation, expressed his delight at seeing such synergy between the Premier League Primary Stars programme, and Premier League Inspires.
“Children have taken part in multiple activities throughout the day and have been engaging with the student voice group who have led on multiple activities,” Glenn said. “It’s a cross-themed event celebrating Premier League Primary Stars and Premier League Inspires, and multiple staff are combining together.
“We’ve had ages represented from both programmes, we’ve taken the students on an engaging stadium tour and scavenger hunt. We’ve captured some amazing feedback from the children about the day.
“It’s nice for the children to take those strategies to help understand how they’re feeling. This allows children to move forward and be confident within themselves.
“The engagement was absolutely amazing, it’s short sharp activities. So they get to take part in thinking activities, physical activities – that quick, sharp offering helps get a snapshot into those different insights.”
The Albion Foundation would also like to thank Kaleidoscope, SHAPE and Murray Hall Creative Theraputic Services for their help in supporting the event.
