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We have put together advice and resources designed to help you and your family stay physically and mentally healthy.
| Walking | Physical activity has a huge potential to enhance our well-being. Even a short burst of 10 minutes of brisk walking increases our mental alertness, energy and positive mood. Participation in regular physical activity can increase our self-esteem and can reduce stress and anxiety. |
| Yoga | One of the few forms of exercise that requires almost no space. There are hundreds of free online yoga tutorials on YouTube. Yoga with Adrienne is the most popular series. Cole Chance is also recommended – her workouts, for beginners to more advanced practitioners, take from 10 minutes upwards and target all parts of the body and different times of day and moods. |
| Dancing | All you need is some good music. Play your favourite tracks and dance around the house together. It’s such a laugh and will cheer you up no end. |
There are lots of ideas online for meals to make with store-cupboard staples. Eat a balanced diet. Get children involved in planning meals and in helping to prepare them. Make sure everyone drinks lots of water too.
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Lose yourselves in creative activities. It doesn’t matter what the end product looks like  – it’s all about the process and maybe learning something new e.g.
Use the time you’ve got to learn something new –  perhaps with your children. See the websites under each subject on this page.
Work with your kids on whatever they’re learning – and don’t forget all the useful life-skills that aren’t covered by the curriculum.
Bake and cook together, do some gardening, DIY or decorating, learn an instrument or language.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has some excellent advice, including to avoid looking at the news constantly – limit yourself to a couple of times a day. (A constant stream of updates can be very disorientating.)Â
Consider where you’re getting your information from. Is it sensationalised? Is it actually helpful? The NHS website, the UK government’s information, and the WHO are all good places to start.
The WHO also recommends sharing good news – if you hear about a successful vaccine trial, for example, or a slowing infection rate.
This is the time to be mindful about your social media use. Are you really concentrating when you pick up your phone? Could you wait another hour before you look?
The WHO has very helpful advice, including:
Encourage children to express their feelings. If they feel anxious, they should be able to say so.
Provide them with information. Be honest, but be sure to emphasise the positive: they are not likely to die, more people have recovered from the virus than have passed away.
If they are in a high-risk group, keep them socially isolated and assure them that you are doing everything to protect them and that if you follow the rules together, there is no reason for them to be infected.
And of course, remember that children may need extra love and attention. Keep them close!
This is related to exercise – we all tend to sleep better if we’ve been physically active. So try to fit some exercise into every day. Try some evening yoga to calm you down. And now is definitely the time to enforce a no-screens-before-bed rule.Â
Try everything above and if none of that works, do something you can control. Write down what you’re worried about – in a diary, say – and put it away.
Practise meditation (lots of courses online) and deep breathing. Focus on helping others.
The Headspace app is recommended by some of our staff and is currently free during the crisis.
Our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA), Mrs Willis, has put together a helpful information poster to provide simple steps to healthy sleeping and eating.
Email
admin@pencombe.hereford.sch.uk
Phone
01885 400 255
Contact
Mrs Near (Office Manager)
Address
Pencombe C.E. School
Pencombe
Bromyard
Herefordshire
HR7 4SH