Throughout the week pupils and staff members engaged in various activities.  For pupils, this started during registration each day.  For example, each form class engaged in a Think-it! Challenge, during which the term ‘wellbeing’ was explored through class discussion and some clips of how other young people define wellbeing.  Pupils also spent time focusing on a Kindness Initiative.  Pupils were shown a Kindness Calendar which gave ideas of how to spread kindness each day and all pupils spent Friday morning writing a Thank You note to someone who had helped them in some way during Wellbeing Week. 

Each lunchtime was packed full of activities to support positive wellbeing.  Our ELSA staff opened their doors and held drop in sessions, our LGBTQ+ support group met, and the Health & Wellbeing Faculty ran a wide variety of sporting events from Gymnastics to Basketball.  There was even a lunch time DJ-ing session! Pupils were encouraged to try out as many activities as they could throughout the week.

On the Friday our year 11 pupils, who have their final exams starting in just a few weeks, spent the day with a variety of outside providers who all worked on promoting positive mental health.  The pupils took part in activities such as, how the use of social media and substances can affect your mental health; how good nutrition can positively impact the way you feel; what peer pressure is and how physical activity can help us cope when dealing with stress. The pupils engaged well in all sessions and we hope that they took away some tips which will help them as they move closer to exam time.

Our pupils also ended the week by supporting the Health and Wellbeing Faculty’s Bake Sale, during which we raised a fantastic £85 for the mental health charity, Mind. We hope that our donation can help the charity continue to support people each day.

The staff at Ponty High also embraced Wellbeing Week.  We started by using our Monday Meeting time to take part in an activity that we enjoy. There were three sessions to choose from – Fitness with Mr. Broad, Cooking with Mrs. Sidoli and Mrs. Cahill and Creative Arts with Mr. Husband. As you can see from the pictures, we all really enjoyed this hour of our week!

As a staff we also wanted to spread some kindness, so we also wrote one another Thank You notes and we took part in the ‘You’ve Been Mugged’ challenge.  This challenge saw staff find a mug filled with tasty treats on their desk.  The idea is that once you have been ‘mugged’ you would then ‘mug’ two more people.  As we are a large staff, this challenge is still taking place!

We ended the week with a big staff breakfast on Friday morning.  We sat together, ate bacon sandwiches and spent some time with people that we wouldn’t usually see in the morning.  It was a lovely way to end the week.

Our Wellbeing Focus Week was a huge success! Staff and pupils took part in many activities and spread kindness around the school.  We already can’t wait for next year!

Mrs Enos.

Leader of Wellbeing