‘I sing silence as loud as I can’

The Importance of Student Wellbeing

Like many schools we’ve been carefully considering staff wellbeing at RPCC and taking action to ensure that we regularly address it in an open forum. But what about student wellbeing? We have an amazing pastoral team that monitor and support our students though recently I have been considering what can be done in our curriculum time to support student wellbeing and this is what I know…

From reading: https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/issue64-bigidea/

Two big reasons (for discussing & promoting student wellbeing as a priority) emerge. One is the recognition that schooling is about much more than academic outcomes. Second, students with high levels of wellbeing tend to have better academic and life outcomes, in school and beyond.

Ask any member of staff at RPCC and they will know and understand this correlation but I am wondering if we should take more time to explicitly plan for our students’ wellbeing within our curriculum areas. In response to Student Voice RPCC have recently prioritised the charity Young Minds and I was interested to read that: In March 2017 YM carried out a survey of 452 children and young people aged 11-18 on behalf of the Health and Education Select Committees to support their joint inquiry into mental health and education and they found that 81% of young people said that they would like their school or college to teach them more about how to look after their mental health.

We are all aware of the necessary increased focus on our students’ mental health and wellbeing and teachers are expanding their skill sets in order to support students experiencing a wide range of mental health issues, but perhaps we can do more to open the debate within our curriculums.

From reading: http://www.isams.com

“Stress-related mental health conditions are one of the most talked about barriers to learning in recent years”

Of the 5 suggestions emerging from this research (which explored wellbeing strategies being delivered in schools around the world) this one caught my attention:

Mindfulness lessons:

“In schools around the world some children are taking 10 minutes out from the hustle and bustle of the school day to reflect on their thoughts and feelings…while others concentrate on their breathing; a technique known as mindfulness.

In its simplest terms, mindfulness helps train your attention to be more aware of what is happening in the present moment, instead of worrying about what has already happened or might happen in the future.”

With this in mind I designed a lesson within the English curriculum for one class, as a trial and this is what I learned:

I know my Year 8 class are fabulous! We work hard to maintain our routines for excellent behaviour for learning, they pay attention to my targets for academic progress, they hand their homework in and they sit in rows…every lesson. But have I planned explicitly for their wellbeing so far this year…

This week I took them on a journey out of their classroom on the English corridor and we spent our time together in the Drama Studio.

The lights were dim – their shoes were off – they laid down in a space on the floor (incredibly none of them questioned my decision to change their learning environment so dramatically and that is just one of the brilliant qualities of our students – they are always happy to try something new!).

In the silence of the Drama Studio I realised the opportunity I had to support my students’ wellbeing.

Now, I have watched Mrs Freeman teaching meditative relaxation in Drama and I am not claiming to be an expert but armed with my instructions from the expert I quickly found my confidence! My lively Year 8 students who normally spend the first moments of my lessons fizzing with the after-math of breaktime dramas or struggling to stay still in their seats as they battle to control unspent energy were quickly relaxed – it was enlightening to observe their commitment to deep breathing exercises and far-away-escape-story-telling! (I flew them out over Southampton Docks…across the Channel…and far far away to a tropical island where they played in the sea and laid on the sand!).

There was no noise…no fidgeting…no movement apart from their toe-wriggling in metaphorical sandy beaches! When I gently brought them back to reality they were relaxed…completely calm and spoke in very quiet voices…it was fascinating.

I sat on the floor with them…they shuffled round me and I read them a book I had bought especially for them: “I Go Quiet” by David Ouimet. There was no chatter…no wriggling…no fiddling…it was like magic! I asked them how they felt…they said they felt calm and relaxed – it was a moment to enjoy!

I am well-accustomed in noticing the powerful impact of literature on students but rarely have I been so convinced by a text. “I Go Quiet” is a beautiful and powerful story of a little girl’s struggle to find her place in school and in the world.

I didn’t analyse the language, though – explore the context – discuss the impact of the writer’s message (very unusual for me to resist!). Instead I asked them to draw their interpretation of the messages in the text. They didn’t question, delay, chat or pontificate instead they found a space and quietly got to work. It was an entirely different lesson – I hardly spoke other than to check they were OK and when the bell went – they asked to stay!

Back in the classroom the next day we discussed the lesson and I learned that they had valued it and claimed that they had enjoyed the pace and the quiet and we shared their creative outcomes. I don’t think that mine is a model upon which to build a ‘mindfulness’ curriculum and I am aware that on the basis of one lesson’s success I can’t claim that this needs to be an embedded ‘event’ in our curriculum but what it has taught me is that I need to be more aware of my students’ wellbeing needs and that they appreciate me knowing this and acting upon it…even just for a lesson every other week.

The National Children’s Bureau poses the question: How can schools promote student wellbeing? And the response from teachers across the country looks like this:

• Be open and positive about promoting wellbeing
• Develop a supportive school and classroom climate and ethos which builds a sense of connectedness
• Promote the acceptance of emotion and vulnerability, warm relationships and the celebration of difference.

I am proud of and confident in the quality of student-staff relationships at RPCC – at the heart of our school community is care and compassion but perhaps what I now also know is the need for us all to take a moment in time and just breathe…