All too often, we do not pause to consider our mental and emotional health until we start to see a negative impact on our stress levels, quality of sleep, or ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
It is widely known that the pandemic has hit everyone’s mental health hard, but especially children, with research suggesting that (following the pandemic) young people are more stressed, anxious and depressed than any other age group.
Bedford School has always placed boys’ happiness and pastoral care first – in fact, it is woven into the fabric of our culture with a commitment to helping others through our Community Partnership Programme, a ‘sport for all’ philosophy, and an extra-curricular programme that encourages boys to try something new and ‘find their passion’.
A recent initiative, put in place by Mr Matt Gracie, Assistant Head (Pastoral), saw Lower Sixth Form boys take the lead in a school-wide initiative, with the aim of looking after mental health before it gets to crisis point.
The initiative was based around five of the attributes featured in the ‘The Great Dream – ten keys to happier living’. These included: Giving, Relating, Exercising, Awareness and Trying Out. The Great Dream, part of the Ten Keys, is a tool we regularly direct pupils to on their online wellbeing portal, and so many were already familiar with its components.
Designated Lower Sixth Formers from every tutor group took responsibility for their tutor groups, encouraging every boy to choose one action to try out for a week to see how this affected their well-being. The Lower Sixth Formers led discussions in their tutor groups and helped boys to identify actions that were authentic to them. One week later they ran a live whole-school feedback session where boys could share what they had tried out and reflected on how impactful they had been. Generally, the boys’ activities made them happier and improved their week. The boys also observed that if they looked after their own mental health then this positively affects everyone around them as they are better placed to help others.
Boys chose from a range of activities, many of them choosing to ramp up their physical activity. Others took steps to get more sleep while some consciously chose to eat better. Some thought about how they connect with people and tried new things out in the community.
Matt Gracie explained, “The overall aim was that every boy in the school tried something new for a week which, in turn, helped them realise that we can all take simple steps to help improve our well-being. The key message was that looking after our well-being doesn’t have to be about waiting until life is hard – we can all make positive changes today.”