Having a positive understanding of children’s mental health and wellbeing has never been more important. The Manor Prep School in Abingdon prides itself on being a listening school with an embedded child-centred approach.
The school actively supports and promotes mental health and wellbeing with every age group throughout the curriculum. In Pre-Prep, children discuss Zones of Regulation to develop an understanding of their emotions and how best to manage them. As children progress through the school, wellbeing matters are addressed regularly in Learning for Life lessons (PSHE), assemblies, form and carpet times, and through dedicated mindfulness lessons taught in Years 3 and 4.
The Manor believes that time spent outdoors is invaluable when promoting mental health. Sport, PE, Forest School and outdoor learning feature heavily in the children’s timetables. The recent addition of “The Lodge” provides an inclusive outdoor learning space to enable children to break away from the traditional classroom setting, promoting both mental and physical wellbeing.
Pastoral care is thoroughly woven into every aspect of the school, and parents often comment that The Manor offers a nurturing warmth and friendliness that they have simply not encountered in other settings. The school’s Learning Support team is based in The Cottage and provides both 1:1 and in-class interventions tailored to the child to enable them to gain confidence and realise their learning potential. The Manor really does challenge, cherish and inspire every child.
Join in during Walk to School Week
A generation ago, seventy percent of us walked to school – now it’s less than half. So Walk to School Week was started to encourage more kids to get out of the car and walk to school.
Walk to School Week is held from 19 to 23 May and is organised by the UK charity Living Streets to celebrate the health and wellbeing benefits of walking.
Families will be encouraged to walk, cycle, scoot or Park and Stride to see the big differences that can come from small steps - from healthier and happier children who arrive refreshed, fit and ready to learn - to less congestion and fewer cars outside the school gates. Download the Family Walk to School Kit, designed to help parents, carers and children make the walk to school work for them. Visit www.livingstreets.org.uk/walk-to-school
FAMILY FUN WITH NATIONAL CHILDREN’S GARDENING WEEK
This summer, why not get involved in National Children’s Gardening Week?
Taking place from 24 May to 1 June, pretty much throughout the UK, children can plant all their favourite plants with less fear of weather damage or the need for complicated protective growing.
As well as simply good outdoor fun, gardening has been shown to have many benefits to health and wellbeing including being more physically active and feeling happier and more connected with the natural world.
There are many ways to get involved with National Children’s Gardening Week from DIY activities at home, to attending an event at a local garden centre.
More info: www.childrensgardeningweek.co.uk
Nikki Saunders brings autism representation to books and television
Mumpreneur and author Nikki Saunders has broken barriers by championing representation for neurodivergent children through her Ready Eddie Go series. Inspired by her son Tyler, diagnosed with autism at age 3, Nikki created the series to address a glaring lack of positive books about autism. The books explore everyday challenges - like haircuts, birthday parties and painting -offering strategies to help children cope. With visuals and clear structures, they encourage understanding and confidence for all readers, particularly autistic children.
The success of the books led to the creation of a SKY Kids TV series, reflecting Nikki’s family experiences. Narrated by Jodie Whittaker (Dr Who), each episode follows Eddie as he navigates challenges, supported by inclusive contributions from autistic writers and animators. Nikki also developed interactive workbooks to complement the show, fostering understanding of social situations. More info: www.readyeddiego.com
Wear it Green for Mental Health Awareness Week
Since 2001, the Mental Health Foundation has been leading Mental Health Awareness Week - bringing the UK together to focus on getting good mental health. This year, the week takes place from 12 to 18 May 2025 and the theme is 'community'
The Foundation is using this Mental Health Awareness Week to celebrate the power and importance of community.
Being part of a safe, positive community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. We thrive when we have strong connections with other people and supportive communities that remind us, we are not alone. Communities can provide a sense of belonging, safety, support in hard times and give us a sense purpose.
How will you celebrate the power of community this Mental Health Awareness Week? Explore ways that you can get involved below. www.mentalhealth.org.uk
Record fines issued
A record 443,000 fines were issued to parents in England for unauthorised term-time holidays during the past school year, reflecting a 53% surge compared to pre-pandemic levels. This increase follows a shift in attitudes toward school attendance, with some parents prioritising family time over the law.
Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson has reaffirmed the importance of consistent attendance, linking term-time absences to disruptions in classroom learning. A fine increase from £60 to £80 per parent has been announced as part of the effort to curb absences. However, critics argue fines are ineffective, with Paul Whiteman of the NAHT pointing to the high cost of trips during school breaks as a key issue.
Some local councils enforce fines aggressively, while others opt not to impose penalties. Advocates suggest addressing financial pressures to effectively tackle the problem.
Have fun at Blenheim Palace with Pip and Posy in Adventure Play
Join Pip and Posy as they search for the end of the rainbow. This brandnew installation will help your kids’ imaginations run wild. So much more than a trail, follow the 3D characters and find a whole host of new treasures.
Start by following Jamilla’s magic pebble and let the rainbow treasure hunter adventures begin. Then, pick up imaginary Unicorns and cliptyclop through the giant carrots, saying hello to Pip and Posy’s mini friends along the way.
Pip and Posy and their friends are on hand with clues to help you find the treasure at the end of the rainbow. There are clues and characters, big and small, for everyone to enjoy in Adventure Play.
Let your rainbow treasure hunters enjoy the adventure play area, where they can slide, climb, splash and run around to find the rainbow and the treasure. Our new storytelling area will also be opening in the Orchard when it’s time to chill and enjoy hearing the magical tales of Pip and Posy.
Source: www.theguardian.com
Opening MayHalfTerm
FIND SOME CALM WITH MO THE SLOTH
Tonies have launched a new range, designed to keep little ones entertained and inspired. With May half term just around the corner, whether families are planning a trip, a cosy staycation, or simply looking for engaging ways to fill a rainy afternoon, there is a Tonie for every occasion. Some of the new Tonies include: Ratatouille, Finding Dory, Mindfulness and Meditations with Mo the Sloth. This Tonie invites kids to discover the world through the power of imagination - all while staying cosy in his hammock. The Toniebox is perfect for popping on whenever children need to slow down and find some calm. Plus, get ready for some of the most laugh-out-loud, mischievous stories from David Walliams; The World’s Worst Children, Gangsta Granny Strikes Again and Robodog.
Prices from £8.99
Bigger and Better
Challenge. Cherish. Inspire.
Why Choose The Manor?
Year 6 Results 2025 28 Senior ScholarshipsSchool and Awards received
We recognise every child as an individual; we want them to reach their potential and exceed it. We aim to provide opportunities for every young person in our care to find what they love to do and be celebrated for it. Those opportunities abound in Music, Sport, Creative and Performing Arts as well as in a balanced, broad, inspiring, challenging and exciting academic curriculum.
Book Your Visit
www.manorprep.org or admissions@manorprep.org
An outstanding independent day school for boys and girls aged 2-11
At d’Overbroeck’s, every student is valued as an individual. We nurture their talents, spark their ambition, and provide a supportive, tailored environment where they can truly thrive—happy, confident, and future-ready.
Join us at one of our in-person events, and discover how we personalise each student’s journey to bring out their very best.
Applications for 2025 are still open. Financial awards are available to help more families benefit from our exceptional education.
REATEYOUR FUTURE
Hands-On History!
WHEN: 27 May, 11:00-14:00
WHERE: Museum of Oxford
Please touch! The museum’s volunteers will help you touch, feel and handle objects ranging from Roman pottery to Second World War helmets. Uncover the stories that objects can tell and what they reveal about our city’s past. Price: Free www.museumofoxford.org
Junior Model Making
WHEN: 28 May, 11am with last entry at 15:15
WHERE: Pendon Museum Pendon Museum will be open on both May bank holidays, as well as their usual weekend opening times. On Wednesday 28th May, there will be Junior Model Making workshops. www.pendonmuseum.com
Nursery Rhyme Crimes
WHEN: 28 May, 10:30-11:30, 14:00-15:00
WHERE: Museum of Oxford
Who pushed Humpty Dumpty? Set up your own crime scene investigation, use UV light, analyse chemical fingerprints and collate the evidence. Can you clear the King, horse or the Grand Old Duke of York? Price: Free www.museumofoxford.org
A Hare’s Journey
WHEN: 29 May, 10:30-12:30 & 13:30-15:30
WHERE: Museum of Oxford
Create your very own brown hare puppet using recycled materials! An opportunity to get crafty while exploring the place of the brown hare in our natural environment and the impacts of a changing climate. This workshop is inspired by THE HERDS and supported by Art Fund. Price: £1.50 www.museumofoxford.org
LEAF Open Farm Sunday
WHEN: 8 June
Open Farm Sunday is a fabulous opportunity to connect farmers and the public to discover the crucial work farmers do producing food, nurturing nature and protecting the environment for future generations. FREE www.farmsunday.org
Nature Tots
WHEN: 21 June, 9:30-11:00
WHERE: Sutton Courtenay
Environmental Education Centre
Join friendly Nature Tots staff and volunteers to explore the nature reserves and enjoy wildlifethemed activities suitable for children aged 18 months to 4 years. £7.00 (plus booking fee) www.bbowt.org.uk/events
MADDER VALLEY RAILWAY
WHEN: 15 June, 11:00 with last entry at 15:15. WHERE: Pendon Museum
The historic Madder Valley Railway will have trains running on Father’s Day. John Ahern’s pioneering model is an important historical piece and as such, only runs for a few days a year to help preserve it for future generations. www.pendonmuseum.com
GETTING BACK TO BASICS WITH OUTDOOR PLAY
Modern life means that children are increasingly spending less time outside. Claire Winter looks at what we can do to inject play back into our chidlrens’ lives.
A recent report by The Children’s Play Policy Forum (CPPF) says there is a modern crisis in childhood and they are calling for children to be given more play opportunities. Increased time spent on screens and the cancellation of public liability insurance for children’s playgrounds means that kids are spending less and less time outdoors playing.
It also warns that the cost to society of allowing these trends to continue is significant including the human cost of physical and mental ill-health, and the financial cost of increased demand on public services.
The CPPF also points out that the mental health of a generation is at risk. The latest NHS figures say that one in five children have a mental health issue, which is a shocking statistic. Childhood obesity is also on the rise. We need to start making changes now.
Robin Sutcliffe, Chair of the CPPF says: “Lack of play leaves children mentally and physically unprepared to cope with life. This affects them in childhood and throughout the rest of their lives. There are huge benefits to be gained when we make sufficient time and space for children to play every day. These benefits contribute to the prevention of the prime issues of health, mental health, obesity and school exclusion – key issues in need of urgent resolution. Play builds happy, healthy children.”
Playing outdoors allows children to learn new skills in a fun environment. It also helps enhance creativity and boosts wellbeing, It makes kids more sociable and the health
benefits are numerous. They get stronger bones and better fitness levels and that all important Vitamin D. They learn how to take risks and become more independent too.
So what can we do get our children outside?
LIMIT SCREEN TIME
Decide what a reasonable time is for your child/children to spend on electrical gadgets and stick to it. Get them to agree to your time limits. You could even create a printed contract that you can both sign! There are also some great apps that you can use to restrict time on devices too.
LET THEM GET MESSY
Get them outside in their old clothes, wellies or trainers. Tell them it’s fine to get wet and dirty. Let them explore and enjoy being in the elements! One of my favourite memories is digging a huge mud pit in my garden with my cousins. Squidging in the mud was and still is glorious.
GROW SOMETHING
Get some seeds and plant up some pots to grow on your windowsill, kitchen or back garden. It’s always magical watching those first shoots appear.
RE-INTRODUCE TRADITIONAL CHILDHOOD GAMES
Go back to the ones that you remember like hopscotch and skipping. You could also get them to invent new games like building a reallife Minecraft shelter or devising a Scavenger Hunt with a theme. Balls, chalk and buckets are all fun to have outside too.
PLAN OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES AND TRIPS WITH THE FAMILY
Plan a trip to the sea or some mountains. In the holidays, get your child to research local wildlife centres, farms or parks you can visit and explore.
Sometimes simple advice is needed in a complicated world. We are all spending much more time sitting down and on devices than we did twenty years ago. I have visited so many beautiful places and watched both parents AND children who are glued to a phone or device. I am also guilty of this. I often use working for myself as an excuse, but we don’t have to be contactable all the time.
Disconnecting from gadgets is vital to feel connected to the world and the people that live in it. If we model the behaviour we want to see from our kids, take a break from our laptop and mobile phone and play outside too, hopefully, they will be inspired to do the same.
Practical Strategies for Supporting an Anxious Child
We often hear that today’s children are more anxious than previous generations. Growing up in an environment with worrying news items about climate change or terrorism, an endless stream of exams and the digital nightmare of social media competitiveness all contribute to this heightened sense of anxiety. No wonder then that many of today’s parents are finding it a struggle to deal with their children’s anxieties.
But there are simple things parents can do to help. Here are some simple strategies which you can incorporate into daily life to soothe anxiety and help your children feel calmer and more at ease.
PRACTISE BREATHING TECHNIQUES
Anxiety can lead to a shortness of breath which in turn creates a pale complexion, sweaty hands and face, tightness in the chest and even giddiness or fainting. “Take a nice deep breath” is a traditional phrase that we’re all familiar with, but taking a deep inward breath is precisely what an anxious person doesn’t need to do. Anxious feelings can be caused by having too much air trapped in the lungs, which gives the sensation of not being able to breathe properly.
Toys and games can help children practise controlling their breathing and here are some useful ways to introduce this concept.
• a hand-held windmill toy with sails;
• blowing bubbles through a wand
• blowing up balloons;
• blowing bubbles in a drink through a straw;
• playing blow football;
• blowing a feather from one side of a table to the other;
• blowing up an imaginary paper bag through a scrunched-up hand.
Not only will your child feel calmer after playing these games, but they’ll get a feel for how to control their breathing more effectively when they are feeling anxious.
CREATE A WORRY BOX
If you have a child that’s stuck in a cycle of worrying about future events and repeatedly asking “yes, but what if…..,” it will be more helpful to restrict the amount of time given over to discussion about these worries.
Find a box. It can be an old shoebox, or a small, attractively decorated one so long as it has a lid and can be closed easily. Explain to your child that this is going to be their personal Worry Box.
By Alicia Eaton
Put a supply of paper and felt-tips inside the box. Each time your child gets stuck in a cycle of worries, ask them to take a sheet of paper from the Worry Box and choose a coloured pen. Having a good selection of coloured pens is useful because you can ask your child what colour they think this particular worry is.
Ask them to write down or draw a picture of the worry.
Once they’ve finished, fold the piece of paper and put it into the Worry Box. Put the lid firmly on the box and put it away.
Once a week, sit down with your child and take out all the pieces of paper in the box and read through the worries one by one. Encourage your child to be pleasantly surprised at just how many worries took care of themselves. Remember: most of the things we worry about never happen!
ENCOURAGE AN ATTITUDE OF POSITIVITY
Negative thinking can easily become a habit that’s hard to break. Switching your child’s thought patterns around will help to prevent this from happening.
Encourage your child to keep a journal. This can be a physical notebook to record events or doodle in, or they can use any devices they may have for the same purpose.
Each day, ask your child to write down three positive things that happened. These can be quite simple to begin with: we had pizza for lunch or the maths teacher forgot to set homework.
If it’s easier, you can introduce this technique conversationally, either in the car or at the dinner table. Start the ball rolling by mentioning something good that happened to you that day. Too many of us fall into the trap of only talking about the problems and difficulties that we encountered during our day.
Alicia Eaton is a children’s emotional wellbeing specialist based in London’s Harley Street and author of First Aid for your Child’s Mind available from Amazon (£12.99). For more information, visit www.aliciaeaton.co.uk
What’s On
Things to do this Spring - drama, music & sport something for everyone in
Oxfordshire
Arti-Techs After School Club. Ages 11 - 14
WHEN: Tuesdays in term-time, 15.30 – 17.30
WHERE: Science Oxford Centre, Headington
Learn new arts and tech skills, make friends and have fun! Work on cool projects and designs including creative coding and micro:bits, computer-aided design; soldering and circuits, woodworking, filmmaking with the green screen; stop motion animation and much more. scienceoxford.com
FREE
Nature Club – Bee Day
Ages 5 – 9 and adults
WHEN: 17 May, 10.00, 12.30 & 15.00
WHERE: Science Oxford Centre, Headington
We’re buzzing about World Bee Day this May! Bees are good for the garden and the planet – join Science Oxford and Oxfordshire Beekeepers Association for a ‘hive’ of activities and a honey taste-test. Play bee games to learn about nature’s ecosystem and investigate plants and pollinators outside in the meadow in insect outfits! Make eco-friendly creations with beeswax to take home. scienceoxford.com
Families Clubs & Classes
Lego® Master Builders Club - Brick Building Workshops for Children
A Minecraft-themed brick building LEGO adventure to ‘another world.’
Take your pickaxe and your imagination as you ‘mine’ with Steve and try to survive Zombie and Creeper encounters. Don’t worry if you are not a Minecraft fan as this workshop has something for everyone. A two-hour immersive experience with 1000s of LEGO bricks, mini figures and LEGO components for LEGO fans. Aged 5+. www.masterbuildersclub.co.uk
WHEN: 27-30 May
Sparks (ages 4 to 11))
Girls Only! Football (ages 5-14)
Hoops Football (ages 5-14) Game Tech (ages 12-16)
The Community Arena, Oxford City FC
Ignite Sport UK’s holiday camps at Oxford City FC offer fun, safe and energy-packed activities for children aged 4–16. Led by experienced coaches, sessions include multisport, football, dance, art and tech, fostering skill development and enjoyment. www.ignitesportuk.com
Crime Scene Science
Ages 5 – 9 and adults
WHEN: 31 May, 10.00, 12.30 and 15.00
WHERE: Science Oxford Centre, Headington
Forensic investigators don their (contamination-proof) detective hats and run a series of CSI experiments to solve a dastardly crime. Dust for fingerprints, take and compare dental impressions and investigate mysterious substances. Examine your clues to see who’s in the frame or eliminate red herrings! scienceoxford.com
PERFORM FREE TRIAL CLASSES
WHERE: NEW! Wallingford: Fridays and Saturdays. Abingdon: Thursdays and Saturdays. Oxford: Wednesdays and Saturdays. Bicester: Wednesdays. Didcot: Fridays
A unique mix of drama, dance, and singing to bring out every child’s potential in a safe environment. Kept small to ensure lots of individual attention, these fun classes will boost your child’s confidence, concentration and belief in themselves. Ages 4-7 and 7-12. www.perform.org.uk
Creative Computing Club – Code in Time
Ages 9-12
WHEN: 7 June, 10.00 and 12.30
WHERE: Science Oxford Centre, Headington Code a pocketclock for the White Rabbit and don’t be late for this month’s Creative Computing Club! Turn a BBC micro:bit into a timer using MakeCode and set the device to show the time and (very important) date. Don’t forget to save the date for Oxford’s ‘Alice Day’ in July… scienceoxford.com
Science Club: Sun Science Ages 5-9 and adults
WHEN: 21 June, 10.00, 12.30 and 15.00
WHERE: Science Oxford Centre, Headington
Get creative at Science Club this June and experiment using the energy of the Sun! Using colour changing beads, test the effectiveness of suncream against sunlight and UV torches and learn about sun-safety. Create a colour changing Cyanotype picture and a sun-powered fiddle charm to take home. For a fun finale, make spinning creations with solar panels, motors and K’Nex! scienceoxford.com
MATHNASIUM LEARNING CENTRES
WHERE: Summertown, North Oxford
By producing a tailor-structured learning plan for each student according to his/her knowledge and skill level, the Mathnasium Method can help children in Years 2 - 12 better understand maths and leap ahead. Try the FREE maths skills assessment/trial session. www.mathnasium.co.uk/ northoxford
