"Positive Thinking" - Weekly Wellbeing

Each week we try and capture some  photographs of our students engaged in various activities during their Wellbeing lessons to give you a sense of the variety of content they cover every week. However it is sometimes great just to look at these photographs and enjoy the sense of positive emotion, relationships and sense of engagement that are evident in every lesson - key components of the PERMAH strands which underpin our Wellbeing Curriculum and together contribute to the positive wellbeing of our students.

This week, our Year 11 students continued to focus on a series of lessons aimed at developing a positive body image and the negative role that can be played by the media in propagating a sense of a ‘perfect body.’ The lesson also focused on the dangers of objectification of both male and females as well as engendering debate centred on stereotypes and associated stigma of weight.

Stigma and stereotypes was a key message in the Year 9 presentation on HIV/Aids by Dr Olivia Wyatt from Family Medical Practice. Building on the series of lessons about inqualities and discrimination developed by our Global Goals team, her presentation focused on developing student understanding of HIV and Aids in pesonal, community and global context and centred around busting the myths and misconceptions around the subject. I was greatly impressed with the maturity and intelligence with which our Year 9 students approached the presentation and several students stayed behind to ask questions of Dr Olivia after the event. 

Year 7 continued their series of lessons developed by our Global Goals team and focusing on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This week the students investigated the dangers that some students face in just going to school around the world due to the threat of terrorism, bullying or violence. Over the last few weeks Year 7 have engaged in a number of challenging and thought provoking debates and tasks in their lessons which have centred around the basic fundamental rights which every child should have access to:

• Life, survival and development

• Protection from violence, abuse or neglect

• An education that enables children to fulfil their potential

• Be raised by, or have a relationship with, their parents

• Express their opinions and be listened to.

Year 8 continued their series of lessons focusing on ‘The Power of Connections’ and this week looked at ‘connecting with friends’. The importance of friendship can never be underestimated and we explored in depth the benefits that good, positive friendships can bring to your life - improved mood, support through tough times, reduction in stress and help to reach your goals to name a few. Using a traffic light system we then considered scenarios which were a sign of a good friendship, a bad friendship or a warning sign to be heeded. This led to some fantastic debate about what the difference between good and toxic friendships and strategies to deal with the latter. 

I wanted to take the opportunity to share some examples of our Year 8 work from last week. As part of a lesson on ‘Connecting with Family’, students were asked to create a family crest which represented elements of their family. These two fantastic submissions by students in Mr McLoughlin’s Wellbeing class deserve recognition for the wonderful creativity and artwork on display. Great work!!

I hope you are having an opportunity to discuss the Wellbeing curriculum with your son or daughter and gain a greater understanding of the work they are doing during lessons and in Tutor Time. Should you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me at robert.alexander@bisvietnam.com

Mr Alexander, Head of Middle Secondary (Pastoral & Wellbeing)