Published on: February 27, 2024
Teams from Compass Changing Lives attended parents’ evenings across Derbyshire this Valentine’s Day, to share some positivity and promote children’s emotional wellbeing.
In Buxton Community School, trainee EMHPs Carolyn and Vickie put their hard studying into practice, backed up by Supervising Practitioner Nicola and Engagement and Equalities Practitioner Mel.
The focal point of their stand was a “Positivity Tree”, where participants were invited to decorate it with moments that made them smile. By the end of the night it was laden with positive thoughts, from spending time with family and friends, playing games of football or the computer game Fortnite, and even mentioning a conversation with our own Nicola that they had enjoyed.
Over in Bemrose School in Derby, EMHPs Sophie and Anisah were also prompting parents and children to share positive thoughts with a display that asked participants to “fill their hearts” with answers to the question “what has made you happy today?”. They received plenty of enthusiastic responses from participants, including “I improved in maths”, “I am amazing” and “my baby brother hugging me”.
When asked what she thought was the most important aspect of these events, Supervising Practitioner Nicola Wood said “I think for me it is about building the community of awareness within school, and enabling families to know there is something accessible in school to support children and young people when experiencing difficulties in relation to their mental and emotional well-being.”
The Changing Lives team observed that everyone left our stands with a smile on their face, having engaged with our positivity exercises and talked to our teams about who we are, and what we do. Our team agreed that it was a Valentine’s Day well spent.
As Anisah Akhtar said “I enjoyed meeting lots of parents, spending time listening to them, introducing our service and getting them involved to fill up the heart. It was a fun experience!”