St Mary’s students take ‘time out’ for Wellbeing Day
Students at St Mary’s School are enjoying a well-deserved break from their normal classroom lessons on Friday 22nd October, to fully immerse themselves in a day of activities specifically designed to support their mental health.
Whilst the positive wellbeing of our students is always a focus here at St Mary’s, we are actively taking a ‘day off’ to hold our special ‘Wellbeing Day’, with the whole school timetable free for periods 1-4. This will be followed by our annual charity fun run at Lammas Land, Newnham, in the afternoon.
To start the day, students are participating in a whole school mindfulness activity, a talk from Natasha Devon (MBE), former advisor to the Government on youth mental health. Natasha is delivering two talks: one on social media, technology and self-esteem to the younger students, and one on body image, health and weight to the older students.
Students are choosing from a range of wellbeing activities to participate in for the rest of the morning. These include mindfulness drawing, crafts, cooking, visits to the botanical gardens, meditation through music, zumba, yoga, as well as games to play. Our Year 7 students are also entering a national art competition supported by the Art department.
Katie Phillips and Dr Andrew Flint, Mental Health and Wellbeing Co-coordinators at St Mary’s School, said:
“At St Mary’s we pride ourselves on supporting the wellbeing of our students and we strongly believe that young people achieve the best results academically when they are happy at school. Our nurturing approach encourages students to gain a sense of their own worth and promotes emotional development and wellbeing. We help our students to build the courage and resilience required to realise their full potential. Our Wellbeing Day is about heightening our already strong focus on supporting the positive mental health of our students by giving them a day away from academic lessons. We hope that this will allow our students to hit the pause button and really refresh their minds. The school day also ends with our annual charity fun run, which has a musical theme this year. We can’t wait to see the amazing costumes and to end our first half of the autumn term on a high!”
To find out more about wellbeing at St Mary's, follow this link.