Health and Wellbeing

Health and wellbeing and how we feel, is a big part of our curriculum and recognising how we feel and what we can do in certain situations is really important for us if we are to face everything that will happen to us in our lives.

Change happens. Change is inevitable. Change takes place whether we like it or not. Some changes are welcome. Some are not. Change can be scary and frighten us sometimes, it is not always easy but it is a necessary part of life, we need to grow, to face new experiences and to learn.  For some it is a time for new adventures but for others it is a time for uncertainty and anxiousness.

The dance you have just watched performed by Y5A and song you have just heard (written and sung by Rachel Taylor Beales  https://www.racheltaylor-beales.com/ )is about how vulnerable, lost and fragile life might sometimes make us feel, but that no matter what place we find ourselves, if we are still able to make choices about how we respond to our circumstances, then there is a reason to hope.

It is about not giving up but learning how to begin again when you’ve lost everything and that the choices we make can give us hope. It is about every day being a fresh start to each new day.

We will all experience many changes in our lives. Change can affect our friendships and relationships and how we feel towards others. It can sometimes make us feel like we have no-one to talk to, like we are all alone. Change can affect how happy or sad we feel, whether we feel angry or jealous, whether we feel sad or anxious.

As part of the work on health and wellbeing Y5A have been exploring some of their ideas. In groups they have written poems, explored vocabulary to describe emotions, created collages and formed human sculptures. You can see a sample of their work below:

We cannot stop the change in our lives. The only thing we can control is how we react and respond.

The first thing to do is ‘Let it out’, communicate. We need to tell others how we are feeling.

The second thing to do is to cooperate with the change. Often our natural reaction is to fight and resist the change. But it’s often better to try to make it work.

The third thing to do is to celebrate the change. When we have communicated how we feel about the change and tried to cooperate with the change, it can often turn out to be a good thing. We can then celebrate the good that’s come out of the change and we can use the experiences we have had to help others when they are struggling with changes in their lives.

In St. Joseph’s we have a dedicated member of staff on our Pastoral team to help pupils discuss wellbeing issues and pupils are also given time daily to fill in Speakr. Speakr is a secure web-based tool designed to help children articulate how they feel at school and to make it easier for school staff to see which children need support. Y5A are currently working on producing a guide to Health and wellbeing for others in our school community.