PILATES, colouring, and introductory instruction on adolescent psychology were but a few of the lessons being conducted at St Sampson’s High School’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Day.
The day, held in tandem with the school’s physical health-focused Be Active Day in the last week of term, saw a host of local organisations descend upon the school to share information and advice on mental wellbeing, with the goal of leaving students with a well-equipped toolkit of coping mechanisms and healthy approaches to life’s difficulties.
‘We do a lot of student wellbeing surveys and collect a lot of feedback, and the most commonly requested change from our students has been to have more time dedicated to mental health and wellbeing in the curriculum,’ said St Sampson’s personal development lead Lee Thomas – or ‘Mr Lee PD’.
‘The end goal is really to create happier students who are able to cope with life’s challenges independently. We want them to know that we’re all here to help you, but you’ve also got to help yourself, and today is all about kind of building the toolkit to make that possible.’
Over the course of the day, students from Years 7-10 were able to attend various of talks and activities, learning about taking charge of their use of devices from Sure, the connection between mental and physical wellbeing from MUG, and sexual and relational wellbeing from SHARE nurses.
Students also engaged in a variety of enriching activities throughout the day, including yoga, pilates, and mindful colouring – the latter of which was, to some students, the most beneficial aspect of everything they did.
In addition to activities and talks on the practical side of curating better wellbeing, students were also given the opportunity to learn more about mental health with a talk from CAMHS, and about adolescent psychology with a talk from educational psychologist and States education officer Rachel Sykes.
The day, together with the subsequent Be Active day, formed part of the school’s activities week.
Mr Thomas said that it had been very positively received, and that he would be keen to see similar event take place again in the future – both at St Sampson’s and the island’s other secondary schools.
‘We have about 520 students, and we’ve only seen one of them who’s not really been engaged today, so that’s really good,’ he said.
‘Hopefully, if it’s a real success, we can work with the personal development leads at the other secondary schools to make sure that all students have equitable access to these types of resources.’
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