“Know Yourself, Grow Yourself”: A look back at Children’s Mental Health Week 2025

The theme for Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 was ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’ and we encouraged children, young people and adults to embrace self-awareness and explore what it means to them.

Celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week with schools

We kicked off Children’s Mental Health Week 2025 spending the morning with Surrey Square Primary School. Rebecca Kirkbride, Clinical Director at Place2Be, took along some official resources for the students to use. Whilst getting stuck into the activities, she spoke to the pupils and learned what mental health means to them.

Another school visit saw Place2Be Chief Executive Catherine Roche and Global Director of The Daily Mile, Gordon Banks celebrating the steps Churchfield Primary School have taken to look after their pupils’ wellbeing. Churchfield Primary partners with both Place2Be and The Daily Mile, and both Catherine and Gordon were delighted to see first-hand the benefits of the partnership on the students.

On Wednesday, Smiley Movement joined Place2Be on a visit to Gwyn Jones Primary School in East London to see how they’ve been celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week. They met with Year 4 pupils who were enjoying the Inside Out 2 resources from our schools pack.

Star-studded support for the week

The week saw familiar faces from TV and broadcasting in a new video series where Young BAFTA presenters spoke to stars about this year’s theme ‘Know Yourself, Grow Yourself’.

Place2Be Ambassador Kate Silverton created a special video talking all about emotional regulation. As a best-selling parenting author and qualified child counsellor, Kate considered the roles that families, parents and carers play in supporting children to develop emotional regulation.

Our fantastic Art Room team created a fun and interactive activity that invited children and young people to reflect what’s important to them and what helps them grow. Place2Be Ambassador Ricky Martin helped bring the activity to life by filming himself do the activity, giving inspiration to those who downloaded the pack.

Ricky also did a painting a day – he asked children, young people and families to send him imaginative and playful ideas of what he could draw. He is auctioning off his artworks to raise money for Children’s Mental Health Week – thank you Ricky!

Place2Be Chief Executive, Catherine Roche, visited Place2Be partner school Ark Tindal Primary Academy where Dame Darcey Bussell attended a special dance showcase. Guests were treated to demonstrations of Charleston, 1980s dance and African dance!

Support from politicians

Place2Be hosted an event in the Houses of Parliament to celebrate Children’s Mental Health Week. The event was sponsored by Stroud MP and former GP Dr Simon Opher, and brought charities, MPs, Lords, and young people together to discuss how we can centre mental health in the education system.

Dr Opher also wrote a blog for us highlighting the proactive approach he thinks the Government should take to improve children’s mental health, tackling the drivers of mental health difficulties. He also explains why he supports Place2Be and Children’s Mental Health Week.

During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reiterated his support for Children’s Mental Health Week when asked about education of mental health in schools. On top of this, we were pleased to have the Mental Health Minister, Skills Minister and the Leader of the House of Commons mention Children’s Mental Health Week.

We were delighted to welcome around 50 representatives who attended the event, including the Chair of the Education Select Committee, the Liberal Democrat mental health and education spokespeople, and MPs from across England, Scotland and Wales. MPs and politicians showed their support on social media for Children’s Mental Health Week 2025, including sharing our resources.

Cross-sector conversations

Children’s Mental Health Week gave us an opportunity to have important conversations about the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.

Gail Precious from the National Children’s Bureau marked Children’s Mental Health Week with a guest blog outlining the change they want to see for children’s mental health.

Place2Be’s Director of Scotland, Fiona McFarlane, highlighted the power of reflective practice in schools in Tes Magazine.

Children’s Mental Health Week in the news!

We’ve loved spreading the word about Children’s Mental Health Week. Ambassador Kate Silverton featured on Gaby Roslin’s BBC Radio London show the day before the week launched. We had Place2Be staff members on radio shows in London, Hertfordshire, Merseyside and Scotland, as well as a feature in The Independent with our Head of Parenting on how to talk to your children.

The Week Junior featured this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week Art Room activity - which has been downloaded almost 10,000 times - hosted by Place2Be’s Ambassador Ricky Martin. Speaking on this “Know Yourself, Grow Yourself” themed art project Ricky says: “The Place2Be Art Room is where I feel really at home. Art is an accessible tool that can break through boundaries, and I really enjoy helping children to express and understand their feelings through creativity.” Ricky has also been painting throughout the week to raise vital funds for the charity through his auction.

School engagement and fundraising fun!

Hundreds of thousands of children, young people and schools have taken part in Children’s Mental Health Week. So far 775 schools have added themselves to the map and told us how they got involved. If you took part this week, make sure you add yourself to our map so we can see what you got up to!

A final thank you!

To finish off, we’d like to say how much we’ve enjoyed seeing everyone take part in Children’s Mental Health Week. Thank you so much for getting involved, downloading our resources, getting creative with us and raising vital funds for children’s mental health.

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Here4You, The Walt Disney Company, Findel and People’s Postcode Lottery for supporting Children’s Mental Health Week 2025!