Students and staff recently took part in a Well-being Week to promote positive emotional health and well-being. The timetable was collapsed on different days for students in Years 7 and 9 as they took part in a range of activities designed to educate them on how best to ensure their emotional well-being. In Year 7 the sessions were predominantly run by our experienced Heads of Year from Main School and covered areas such as ‘Understanding and Managing Emotions’ (based on research carried out by Professor Steve Peters, author of the Chimp Paradox), ‘Strategies for Coping with Anxiety and Living in the Digital Age’, ‘Healthy Lifestyles’, ‘Dealing with Conflict’ and the ‘Art of Giving’. The day was a fantastic success and the feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive!
We are extremely proud that the Year 9 day was organised by students in the year group who have been part of the ‘Lancashire Minds Well-being Challenge’. Students took part in activities designed to enhance appreciation and understanding of different cultures, healthy lifestyles, connecting through Art, connecting face-to-face with peers (not via social media!) and giving to others. The effort put in by the student leaders was incredible and, as with the Year 7 day, the feedback was very encouraging.
No homework was set at Main School during the week and students were encouraged to use the time they would normally have spent on homework on a range of well-being activities instead. At the Sixth Form a range of activities took place at lunchtimes and all were well attended.
During the week we were very fortunate to have Dr Anna Duxbury in school to deliver a workshop for parents/carers. Dr Duxbury is a Clinical Psychologist from Lancashire Care Foundation Trust, working for the Lancashire Emotional Health in Schools Service. She delivered a fascinating workshop with a focus on understanding emotional distress and, more specifically, anxiety. She reiterated some of the strategies students are taught in school in order to cope with difficulties they may encounter whilst at school and beyond.
Positive emotional health and well-being is something we spend a lot of time developing and we are always looking at how we can further support our students. We are looking forward to developing our programme further in the coming months.
Comments are closed.