St John’s Show Five Ways to Well-being

We were very pleased to award St. John’s Primary School (Baldock) a grant to promote and enhance well-being throughout the school.  In a very comprehensive project, Kat England (Asst. Head and SENCo) explained St. John’s will:

…put on a different activity each day during Well-being week which would link to one of the “5 Ways to Well-being.”
1. To be active (Physical Education link)
This is where we wish to spend money on a specialist dance teacher who can come in to teach the children a fun “Strictly style” routine/year group
2. Take notice (Physical Education link)
Having a specialist children’s yoga teacher come in to help the children chill out!
3. Connect (Art and DT link)
We want to spend money of art resources so that the children can work together with members of their family (who will be invited in for the day) to build a mosaic for the outside area of the school. This will also improve the environment and overall setting for our children.
4. Learn (Music Link)
We would like to spend money on an African drumming workshop so the children can learn something they would never normally experience.
5. Give
We will all be giving of our time by organising activities related to the community.

The application was comprehensive and very well written, with each individual activity being costed and sourced and the benefits of each and the week as a whole being clearly explained. 

Let’s give Kat the last word…

…we can tackle the mental health epidemic through showing children just how the different school subject areas can be used to heighten motivation, engage them and show them the enjoyment that comes from learning something for a subject they thought they already knew about but have seen in a different light. What child would turn down learning about music, through African drumming, rather than using the same equipment and resources that have been in school for years? What child wouldn’t be motivated to pursue their creativity in art when they have taken part in a massive whole school project that they can see every day when stepping out onto the playground?

Feedback

Kat kindly sent us a copy of their newsletter which gives a great picture of how the Wellbeing Week went...

Wellbeing Week at St. John’s Primary School

In the week of Monday 10th February- Friday 14th February, our school took part in a variety of activities as part of "Wellbeing Week." The children were bubbling with excitement as each day was assigned to one of the "5 steps to Wellbeing" which include:

Monday kicked off with a very intense round of exercises that saw the staff and the children physically exhausted by the time our sports coach for the day, Mr Baker, had put us all through our paces.  There was a lot of squatting, running and general competitiveness (and that wasn’t just from the staff!)  There were many sore legs for the rest of the week so it must have done us all some good!

Tuesday saw 2 tutors from the Letchworth Healthy Living Centre, come in to teach us how to be more mindful.  We took part in some breathing techniques to help us all be “in the moment” more and support us when we are feeling anxious.  We learnt about our brains and even sang a song to remember which parts did which jobs.

Wednesday brought a whole lot of noise as we banged away on our drums and roused the local neighbours from their naps!  The children had a thoroughly amazing time learning how to play music through African drums with our excellent expert Raz, who had us marching to his beat all day.  It was great to be able to show off the children’s newly learnt talents in a whole school assembly at the end of the day.  We may just have created some future drummers!

Thursday was spent in and out of Hi Vis jackets and yielding litter picking equipment as we descended on the local Baldock community and started tidying up the rubbish that had been strewn around the woods and the grassy areas near our school.  Despite the, not quite so warm weather, we donned our wellies and got stuck in, managing to remove lots of waste and turn our green spaces into a much nicer place to live for all.

Friday ended the week with a whole-school art project where each class was given a large piece of wood.  The children and teachers set about creating a mural depicting a subject theme which are to be displayed in various places around the school.  The art project has not only helped us to connect as a whole school, whilst talking and listening to music when we worked, but will have a positive effect on enhancing the environment within the school, when they are proudly hang up throughout the corridors and general spaces.

We want to say a big “thank you” to EduFund UK, who provided us with the money to spend on the art and music projects so that we could invest in outside agencies to teach us something new, and buy the materials we needed for the beautiful displays the classes have made.

We hope the children have been telling you all about the fun they had that week and that we can put on more activities in future to help promote good mental health through arts, sport and music.