Weekly Reflections: Developing a Sense of Wellbeing

This week is Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week and we have spent time, across school, thinking about how we take care of our own sense of wellbeing. 

The mental health charity, Place2Be, has centred this year’s thoughts on the Disney Pixar film, Inside Out 2, focusing on theme ‘Grow Yourself, Know Yourself’. In Monday’s assembly, we discussed the film’s central notion: that our emotions drive our lived experiences and become ever more complex as we develop through the teenage years. 

Adolescence can, indeed, feel like an insidious onslaught of the film’s anthropomorphised emotions: Embarrassment, Anxiety, Ennui and Envy. This week we have encouraged students to think about what they can do to make room for a little more Joy, and we decorated the central staircase to capture the girls’ thoughts. Their responses were heart-warming in their simplicity: ‘Tell a super-funny joke’, ‘Talk to a trusted person’ and ‘put on my favourite film,’ to name a few.  

The rest of the week has been filled with relaxing and creative activities designed to underpin the importance of wellbeing and, to coin a phrase from Inside Out, to strengthen our ‘Islands of Personality’. Students painted flowerpots in The Hive, and then planted them up with sunflower seeds in Evie’s Garden. In due course, these shoots will serve as a fitting reminder that laying solid foundations for wellbeing results in long-term flourishment. By contrast, Mrs Phillips has been teaching the therapeutic benefits of embroidery - the positive impact of sewing was used to support recuperating soldiers in World War I and II. Our students have been creating a tapestry of positive words, and this will be finished next week. For those who prefer to be active and outdoors, there have been Wellbeing Walks and a focus on gardening to grow vegetables or ‘brainfood’! And for those who just want a little time to relax, there has been nail painting, hot chocolate and the chance to chat to key pastoral staff. 

Equally important is to furnish students with the time to think about what gives us mental strength. To this end, our School Counsellor, Ros Harwood, has been running groups sessions designed to build inner confidence. The girls were challenged to find their voices and share what they are proud of, despite the natural embarrassment of being a teenager. Our LGBTQ+ community was supported by a talk from Off the Record that explored personal wellbeing, and that encouraged us all to think about how we can be allies to this community. 

Mental Health Week is an annual opportunity to shine a light on our own ‘Islands of Personality’, but it should not be treated as tokenistic. Taking care of one’s emotional wellbeing is paramount and is every bit as important as academic success.