A PRIMARY school in Poole is the first to deliver more than 1,000 movement activity sessions, known as ‘stormbreaks’, to improve pupils mental health.

Stormbreak is a mental health charity that supports primary aged children’s emotional wellbeing and mental health through movement.

Bishop Aldhelm’s CE primary now delivers a stormbreak session to every child, every day across the school including throughout the challenges of home learning, virtual classes and the disruptions of lockdowns and school closures throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Teachers and wider school staff have ensured a consistent delivery of stormbreak, seeing the positive impact on pupils throughout the challenges faced by schools in the last two years. Deputy headteacher Lizzie Sharpe has championed the programme since joining as a pilot school after reading about it online.

Stormbreak activities are based around five key mental health concepts: resilience, self-care, relationships, self-worth and hope and optimism. Stormbreak aims to reduce the stigma around mental health by equipping children with language and skills that allow them to recognise, respond and regulate their feelings from as early as reception.

Lizzie Sharpe, deputy headteacher at Bishop Aldhelm's CE Primary in Winston Avenue said: "The impact of stormbreak is huge. Implementing stormbreak is having such a positive impact on our children’s wellbeing and mental health. The level of emotional need, even through Covid, has reduced."

Dr Martin Yelling, founder and CEO of stormbreak, said, “It’s so exciting to see the real impact that stormbreak is having on the lives of children and the culture of a school. At a time when children, teachers and schools need support we’re pleased that stormbreak has been able to help wellbeing and mental health. We’re so proud of Bishop Aldhelm’s, the staff and children”.