BUCKFAST Abbey is lifting the mood and mental wellbeing of primary school children with the launch of its largest ever festival to help children cope with the stresses of daily life.

Starting this week, the Take 5 Festival, a virtual event created by the Abbey’s Education Department, builds on the success of last year’s inaugural, week-long event, which saw schools from as far as Cumbria, Yorkshire and Kent getting involved.

This year, the festival has been extended to two weeks, ending on Friday, October 22.

The festival comes at a key time for school children, having recently returned for the autumn term. For many it has been a hard year, with few unaffected by the impact of Covid, home schooling, bubbles and isolation, leading to a range of anxieties and worries. 

Sharon Lord, Buckfast Abbey’s Wellbeing Project coordinator, said: ‘The Take 5 Festival has been designed to equip primary school children with a range of tools to help promote good mental health and wellbeing. It gives schools and children access to a series of fun, practical and engaging workshops that focus on spiritual, emotional and mental health.’

Based around the five actions that promote wellbeing, which are ‘give’, ‘take notice’, ‘learn and create’, ‘be active’, and ‘connect’, the sessions are located within virtual festival tents and encompass a mix of video workshops and resources, providing content and inspiration for classroom activities.

Sharon said: ‘Children will be encouraged to engage with nature, be given practical tools for those “tricky moments”in life when we all need help to manage our feelings, and will be able to take part in guided reflections, undercover acts of kindness, yoga and Forest Chi for active mindfulness.

‘By creating the virtual festival, we hope that children from across the UK will be able to benefit from the expertise of our workshop leaders and Wellbeing Practitioners.’

The Take 5 Festival launches only a few days after NHS Digital published a report which shows that 40 per cent of six to 16-year-olds felt that their mental health worsened over the course of its study between 2017, and 2021.

Among the many activities on offer, children can find out about life at the Abbey and its community of monks. They can create their own Labyrinth for mindfulness and even take part in a Q&A session with Brother Daniel, Prior of Buckfast Abbey.

Alison Gagg, Education Manager at Buckfast Abbey, said: ‘All schools need to do is book in advance to receive their unique access code which enables them to visit the festival website. They can sign up for a class or the whole school, and they can visit the site as many times as they like over the two weeks.’

To find out more about the Take 5 Festival, visit https://www.buckfast.org.uk/education/take-5