Solihull School on wellbeing as part of the school psyche

Alarming statistics about mental health in children and young people in at least the last couple of decades have prompted many organisations to evaluate their role in community mental wellbeing, not least Solihull School.

Wellbeing and personal development post pandemic

Earlier this month Sir Anthony Seldon was clear in his view that teaching wellbeing and character is critical in all educational establishments. In the light of the pandemic, this has never been never truer. With child and adolescent mental health services stretched (CAMHS) beyond capacity, schools, colleges, and universities are having to contain and manage complex mental health situations in pupils.

This sounds like and is a sad situation, yet the wellbeing and personal development (WPD) team at Solihull believes that the delivery of practical, realistic wellbeing and personal development is a privilege, pleasure, and important part of their school psyche.

“We see this as part of our educational duty to foster awareness, provide skills and understanding of modern-day issues, to help pupils incorporate and use skills for coping with life’s challenges in a realistic and pragmatic way, and to facilitate safe and authentic learning spaces for young people to explore who they are and how they fit into the world around them” says Louise Rooney, head of WPD and diversity, equity and inclusion lead at the leading three –  18 independent co-educational day school in the Midlands.

Rather than this just being a series of one-off assemblies or occasional drop-down of timetable, headmaster Mr David EJJ Lloyd, wanted to incorporate a more structured and relevant approach to wellbeing and all those themes that reside under the umbrella of ‘Learning for life’.

Wellbeing initiatives

In 2013, the then Solihull junior school implemented growth mindset lessons and the ‘Happyometer’ initiatives under the steady hand and inspiration of Mr Mark P Penney, head of the prep school, alongside ‘Scuffle and Twitch’, two characters that act as purveyors of wellbeing and positive psychology to our youngest pupils.

In 2014, the junior school was the first part of the school to introduce structured mindfulness lessons into their curriculum, the ‘paws b’ model, with staff being specially trained to facilitate this work via the mindfulness in school’s project.

Since then, the WPD curriculum has grown year-on-year and seen the launch of the Scuffle and Twitch guide to fulfilling your potential as well as their ‘Guide to behaviour that benefits others’.

‘We call it wellbeing and personal development because it is important to illustrate that this is designed to provide skills, help pupils build metacognitive awareness including development of their own characters and values.’ _ Louise Rooney, head of WPD and diversity, equity and inclusion

Most recently our infant children have enjoyed the introduction of their own bespoke ‘Guide to living life well’. These WPD initiatives have proved to be incredibly successful with pupils and their parents alike, with staff also reporting having felt hugely empowered in adapting extensive research in psychological science, age appropriately, for the benefit of young children.

The work extended into the senior school in 2017. Louise, who is a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy as well as a teacher, was appointed to create a unique curriculum that would incorporate the best quality PSHEE, RSE and SMSC lessons alongside the inclusion of mindfulness skills, a resiliency programme, and flourishing qualities for young adults.

“We call it wellbeing and personal development because it is important to illustrate that this is designed to provide skills, help pupils build metacognitive awareness including development of their own characters and values, and have a sense of efficacy in their learning process,” says Louise.

The wellbeing and personal development team

The WPD team of teachers, made up of enthusiastic professionals who do this as their second discipline includes maths, delivers weekly lessons in the senior school across all years. It is a timetabled, non-academic yet core subject, with its foundations drawing from the Jungian idea of individuation and with the Lave and Wenger community of practice teaching philosophy at its heart.

“Pupils like the unique way that WPD is taught. They have a voice in organic knowledge acquisition and awareness building, and they appreciate the opportunity to discuss prominent issues and themes in a way that does not infantilise them but elevates them into people with the capacity to understand, acquire skills and employ them for their own wellbeing and for others.”

Pupils write their own end of year reports so that they speak to how they feel they are coping and how they have grown as individuals each year, writing about what the impact of learning in these key areas means for them personally.

“When you read these reports each year, it is moving, exciting and delightful to know that the pupils are enjoying the learning and that it is making a difference.”

The Solihull WPD programme does not shy away from being real about life; the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens, including key lessons on contemporary issues such as sexism, discrimination, social mobility etc.

‘We are not ‘Pollyanna’ about challenges and difficult themes. However, we do foster and model the hope that everyone has the capacity to be well and be prepared for life’. _ Louise Rooney

“WPD is a spiral curriculum, taught in an age-appropriate way but we are not ‘Pollyanna’ about challenges and difficult themes. However, we do foster and model the hope that everyone has the capacity to be well and be prepared for life. Pupils appreciate this which is why it has embedded so deeply into our school’s identity,” Louise continues.

WPD has its own branding (copywritten) and a clear identity in all the lessons, resources, and content. Satellites from this core subject include for example key and important pupil voice in their highly respected pupil equity group and the newly formed alumni equity group, a strong and supervised peer mentoring scheme, the unique RESTORE/RETRACE ©  behaviour management programme (at the time of writing a finalist for Innovation Award for an Outstanding New Initiative in the Independent Schools Awards 2022), and co-facilitator training for sixth form medics to help deliver certain RSE lessons to younger years.

“Not only are teachers trained in these disciplines, but we also extend our learning opportunities in the spirit of community care and task-shifting to older pupils, alumni, parents, and families of our pupils and beyond. For a community to thrive together, we must come together to strengthen and take care of each other and have the skills and confidence to know that we can all play a part. This for us is our part in creating individuals with the capacity to thrive and be happy and cope with the many diverse elements of human life.” 

Provision of this learning did not stop during the pandemic; in fact, it was readily accessible for everyone and went a huge way towards sustaining community wellbeing.

“The post-pandemic curriculum is thriving too,” says Louise. “We are meeting the big issues head-on, we are focusing on nurturing pupils’ awareness of their own experiences of coping and resiliency that they showed during the last two years in particular, and they are learning that they have the capacity and skills to be well and thrive in life.”

Read more about IET World Mental Health Day