St Mary’s Colchester: How our enrichment activities promote wellbeing

In her role as Wellbeing Co-ordinator, Jo Middleditch shares St Mary’s Colchester’s approach to supporting the wellbeing of students and staff. She shares examples of how the school has revised its extra-curricular programme, provided an outlet for staff to discuss well-being issues in school, and created a well-being day to showcase the broad range of activities that can enrich, motivate, soothe and challenge students and explore what well-being means at an individual level.

Author and position: Jo Middleditch, Head of Year, teacher (PE, PSHE and other), Wellbeing Co-ordinator

School: St Mary’s Colchester

Introduction

Having observed and reflected on the growing evidence showing the scale of the mental health crisis affecting young people across the UK and wider world, the school management team considered it necessary to create the post of a wellbeing co-ordinator. This new role ensured that the school created opportunities to promote wellbeing, and that staff kept abreast of the latest thinking on this subject. I have long had a personal interest in child psychology and the subject of well-being, and was able to draw upon this, and courses on mindfulness and behavioural psychology, on my appointment to the role. The Principal also appointed a ‘SEW’ (Social, Emotional, Wellbeing) Team, in order to ensure a cohesive approach to Mental Health and wellbeing. The team consists of our SENCO, head of PSHE and myself as Wellbeing Coordinator. We meet every week to discuss and provide support for any pupils who need extra help in any of our areas of strength: SEN support, behavioural support (PSHE) or Mental Health support (me).  All staff are able to make pupil referrals to us where they see fit.

As a girls’ school, we have seen how the societal growth in anxiety, amplified by social media, has impacted our pupils; the increasing pressure they put on themselves to achieve and their heightened anxieties about progressing to university and employment. It was also affecting their attitudes to life outside of school too, for example, in their ambition to strive for perfection in areas such as body image.

We recognised that if we wanted our students to not only succeed but fulfil their potential in their life beyond school, we had to find ways to challenge the growing tidal wave of anxiety and help students find their own ways to improve their happiness and well-being.

Planning

The Principal had already established a twice weekly, 30-minute Enrichment Programme, which I expanded, to broaden the activities offered and explore new ways of promoting well-being. We recognised that the activities within these slots could be broadened to provide a variety of means for students to feel enriched and de-stress. We invited students to share with us their ideas on activities that they might enjoy and also reached out to staff to recommend activities that they found beneficial and would be happy to share with our students.

As well as offering this weekly touch-point, we also saw the value in setting aside a day in the year to focus entirely on well-being. Such a day would allow the whole school community to come together (including parents) to explore a variety of tools which may assist a student’s wellbeing, but also demonstrated how the solution to student well-being lies in the input and support of those at school and at home. Being off timetable would also afford us more time to learn about well-being concepts through the inclusion of guest experts and involvement of other partners.

In focusing on well-being, we recognised that we needed to address the topic at a whole school level, as it’s unrealistic to expect staff to teach messages of self-care if they are driven into the ground themselves. Showing staff that the school considers their well-being too, and encouraging outlets to promote well-being, ensures that staff are speaking from a position of authentic experience and aids their understanding of the issue.

Activity

Weekly Enrichment Experiences and Discussions

During our extra-curricular time, we offer a range of activities, underlining the message that there are many activities students can enjoy in and outside of school to lift their spirits and re-set their mood. These include mindfulness, various sports, resilience training, chess, knitting, and singing. The students elect to join an activity for a few months then have the chance to explore something new.

Students have also benefitted from having dedicated time for Service so we have recently been taking a volunteer group of students on a weekly visit to a care home to enjoy time speaking to the residents and sharing memories and stories about their week.

We hold staff well-being meetings to provide faculty with an opportunity to discuss the issue of well-being with senior management and posit ideas and solutions for combating any issues that arise. The meetings have resulted in the school supporting flu jabs, gym memberships, yoga classes after school and even weekly chocolate biscuits! These take place every one-to-two weeks during break times. I also seek informal feedback from teachers, for example, during other school breaks or in conversations outside of school, such as school visits. The key to the success of these meetings has been ensuring the purpose and role of them is clear: we invite positive suggestions and solutions, rather than simply complaints, and ensure any individual concerns are dealt with through other means.

We also operate a Year 11 listening system for girls in their younger years. Senior girls are paired up with younger students in the year below, and opportunities are sought for them to spend time together doing activities throughout the year.

Well-being Day

Our Well-being Day is held in the middle of July towards the end of the school year. All staff and students are off timetable for the day and parents are invited to observe the activities. Students are grouped in their year groups and Houses and offered a range of activities to try for an hour, enabling them to rotate around a few activities throughout the day.

The whole ethos of the day is about connecting with other students in a warm, social setting, building their confidence, and encouraging their resilience in ‘giving things a go’ that they may not have tried before, or may seem a little scary or difficult.

Examples of the activities offered include games, a singalong session, dance, textiles and crafts and the opportunity to create a mood-board. Students are also invited to face their fears, for example, by attending a skills workshop in public speaking.

The activities balance fun with challenge but also relay important messages about the spirit of participation versus achievement and perfection. Activities, such as cooking, for example, focus on the enjoyment of the activity, reminding students that they do not have to create the perfect cake to enjoy baking and feel enriched by their hobby.

Students are involved in designing the day, choosing the activities, theming them (selecting their favourite songs, games and dances) according to their own interests, ensuring the day is geared to what they like.

We also use the opportunity of the day to understand more about the subject of well-being from a range of experts and authorities. Last year, we invited mental health expert, Dr Krause, to share with us information on the Mind Your 5 Programme. This programme highlights the importance of exercise, positive thinking, and managing your emotions in promoting well-being. Our school catering company also provided a talk on healthy eating, dispelling some of the myths related to fad diets. A group of therapists from the local gym were also on hand to offer facials, massages and yoga classes.

In the coming year, we will be continuing our focus on healthy eating (our catering company will be providing a smoothie bike) but will also be focusing on digital awareness. This will examine the pitfalls of social media from the perspective of staff, students and their parents, and its contribution to the rise in social anxiety.

Challenges

• Timetabling – In the inevitable juggle of school activities, it is always difficult to find time for activities outside of academia. Having staff participating in well-being activities themselves reminds them of the benefits of focusing on this area for students’ own personal and academic development. I encourage staff to seek feedback from students directly on how they have benefitted from an enrichment activity so that they gain a deeper insight into these benefits. The sponsorship of the principal is also vital in demonstrating its importance when prioritising school activity.
• Having a variety of enrichment activities – It’s important to remember that we are all different and what’s relaxing to one person, won’t be for another. Having the broadest range of activities available is therefore essential.
• Being authentic – Through Inset, we offer information sessions to staff on subjects such as resilience. We also hope to have the faculty trained in a mental health first aid qualification in the near future. Having an external authority expounding the benefits of mental health support only amplifies our own messages about its importance in our school.

Impact

We monitor what is working well by looking at the popularity of activities that the students sign up for and know from their feedback to us that they enjoy the different types of activities on offer. We also invite them to write down how they feel after some of the activities (often anonymously) in order that we can track the extent to which certain activities benefit our students. Their feedback tells us that they feel calmer, more relaxed, have gained in confidence and that they feel good from learning something new.

The Enrichment Programme has also resulted in a secondary benefit. It has provided us with an opportunity to engage the wider staff body in school life by inviting them to volunteer to lead an activity. Our School Secretary, for example, has enjoyed leading a craft club, which has been enriching for her, in sharing her hobby with others, and helpful in creating more meaningful connections with our students.

The future

Follow-up assembles enable us to further embed our learnings, for example, after the Well-being Day, we distributed Mind Your 5 Information Booklets to the students and encouraged them to think about how they would apply the learning to their daily life.

In the future, I think we will continue to explore new activities, maintain the annual well-being day focus, and ensure we continue to keep abreast of the latest issues affecting our students and staff to consider new ways of promoting well-being.

Advice

• Seek input from students and staff to shape the programme  – Allow them to share with you their interests to plan a broad atlas of activities.
• Engage professional bodies – Look at the authorities and experts offering tuition and advice to schools on well-being and put them in front of your staff body. It will strengthen your own messages about the importance of the subject and ensure you have new approaches and theories to consider.
• Regular interventions – Having a Well-being Co-ordinator role and frequent interventions in the school day ensures that the subject remains a key focus. It is vital, however, that the issue remains fresh and relevant (responding to the issues affecting students and staff), so there is also an informal role ensuring that people are talking to each other and that the doors of communication are kept open.