Did you happen to visited the CBC web site and its pages on Mental Health.

Depressed Children Targeted By Bullies – This article is from Friday, February 10th.

Some key points for me were:

• “Children who cry easily and show other signs of depression are more likely to be bullied, but researchers suggest the depression may not necessarily be caused by bullying.”
• “researchers found little evidence that being bullied increased a child’s risk for later depression”
• “Parents and teachers need to be aware of the signs of depression in children and help them, the researchers stressed.”

The CBC web site has links to other mental health topics.

When I read articles like this, I can’t help but think of the number of children who experience social difficulties in their peer groups and who may be or become targets. I also worry that some of the reactions to bad behaviours may in fact be making the problems harder for children, if not handled properly.

When learning about a child who may be having trouble with his or her peers, I think it is very important that we take the time to listen to all parties involved, and not react to only one story. (10 Reasons to Listen to Both Sides of Any Story)

Working with children and families on mental health issues can be a touchy subject for some families. Even the term “Mental Health” triggers an emotional response in the adults and may shut down discussions.

• We need to be more willing to have open discussions with one another about children and their social and emotional needs.
• We need to work with children to give them to tools to handle the complex world of social relations.
• We need to respect the privacy of all children involved and not carry out the discussions with people who have no need to hear the story. Privacy should not be dead.
• We need to look at aspects we can control and not focus all the time on the other child.
• We need to support all children in our schools and make this a place for all children to feel safe, secure, and important.

Ask your child about what they learned in the Stand By Me program. We are working on giving them tools and skills that will help us to make this a caring school.

Take care.

A recent article on the Huffington Post Education Canada web site focused on schools selling junk food to children – Junk Food Widely Available at Elementary Schools, Study Shows. The article has a U.S. focus, but many might ask about food sales at Cleveland.

In recent years, the British Columbia Ministry of Education has introduced guidelines for selling food in schools – Guidelines for Food and Beverage Sales in BC Schools. This document is to be used by schools, PACs and others to ensure that we sell nutritionally sound products to children.

We have recently removed the vending machine from the school? Did you know we had one? It sold items that were within the guidelines, but we elected to remove it. It is my opinion that we do not need a vending machine, and if children want drinks, they can bring healthy choices from home.

Do all our food sales meet these guidelines? I believe so, but I could be wrong. Our Cleveland PAC works with these guidelines when finding suppliers for our food day sales. Before planning food sales for next year, we will need to review the items we sold this year to ensure everything meets the standards for public schools. This should be a regular part of our yearly review process.

About our food days – please remind your children to show appreciation to all the volunteers who make sure these food days are so well organized. They come early every food day, get the many food orders organized by division, and then have the food ready to be in class by noon. It is very important that we teach (and reteach) good manners, and model them for children to see at all times. We have great parent volunteers who provide us a lot of direct support to make sure each child gets what he or she ordered.

The Fruit and Vegetable Program

Thanks to parent volunteers, we are participating this year in the BC School Fruit and Vegetable Program. This program exposes children to a variety of fruits or vegetables by delivering healthy snacks to schools 13 times a year. Parent volunteers then sort out the snacks, and deliver them to classes. We recently had anjou pears, and I believe we have ambrosia apples coming soon.

Food Allergies

Food allergies also need to be taken into consideration when dealing with food in schools. We have children (and staff) who are highly allergic to certain food items (tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, shell fish, etc.) and we need to ensure that the school remains safe for them. More recently, we seem to have a rise in the number of children who suffer from allergic reactions to other food items (i.e. gluten, soy). We need to work with our families to help us better understand these issues, and to put in place appropriate policies for food in schools. This will be an ongoing project.

How can parents help?

• If your child has a food allergy, please provide detailed information to the classroom teacher and the office. Make a plan with the classroom teacher about how to handle food issues at school, and include your child in the planning. Children as young as Kindergarten can learn to advocate for themselves.
• If you are sending treats for a birthday to school, please ensure that the treats are appropriate for a school setting. Any food should be presented to the classroom teacher first.
• If you are unsure about allergies in the class, please contact your child’s teacher prior to sending food in. While they cannot let you know who has the food allergy, they can let you know what types of food are safe.
• Educate your child about how he or she can help classmates by choosing safe food for their school lunches. Eating a peanut butter sandwich is something they can do at home.

I will be posting more specific information about food allergies soon.

Take care.