Fund For Wales- Healthy Living

If you are interested in offering your students a 10-week course, check out the feedback below:

Feedback from Teacher at Ysgol Glan Clywd

We were very grateful to receive the 10 weekly sessions from Young and Mindful and obviously so pleased that the grant was available to fund this work.

Ysgol Glan Clwyd is a Welsh Medium Comprehensive school with all lessons provided through the medium of Welsh – all exams are taken through the medium of Welsh.

Organisation

The initial contact with Shilpa was really valuable as Shilpa was able to explain to us exactly what the sessions entailed, what type of students to choose and examples of the delivery options that other schools used

Choosing pupils

We decided to ask the Wellbeing Officers in school for names of students from Year 7-9 who would engage and gain advantage out of this activity. 

We also decided just to ask girls.

We also organised that the activity would happen every Tuesday at 1.30 for 10 weeks and for most sessions they happened in the same class.

Overall experience

The staff who attended the sessions from Young and Mindful were excellent and settled in well to the environment at Ysgol Glan Clwyd. We provided a well being officer for the first two sessions but after that there was no need for that extra person. The pupils were comfortable with the staff.

I appreciated the feedback given more or less on a weekly basis.

The staff also knew the students well and our pupils were happy confiding in them – one safeguarding issue was flagged up by one of the staff which was much appreciated.

The pupils were very conscious of why they were in this group and at the beginning were not sure whether the sessions were right for them – however we were re-assured that it needed 2 sessions of explaining before pupils would appreciate the sessions – this was true as as soon as we hit the 3rd session pupils were far more settled and understanding of the group.

We did have 2 drop out but we also had 2 who wanted to join the group.

After the sessions the pupils were keen to share what they had done and were looking forward to the next session

Having an external agency delivering these types of wellbeing sessions is incredibly useful. It not only enriches what we try and provide in school but also that ‘other’ person from outside our school family provides an extra opportunity to share things that sometimes you do not want teachers to know. Pupils also believe that outside organisations have more speciality.

We were very happy with the opportunity that Young and Mindful offered us and as previously mentioned the fact that a grant paid for this special work – we, as a school, could not have paid for these sessions provided by the Young and Mindful team.

Thank you Shilpa for organising this for us and please thank your wonderful team and the fact that you provided a Welsh speaker for us.

 

Feedback from Teacher at Ysgol Tir Morfa

Feedback from Teacher at Ysgol Castell Alun

All the staff that have facilitated the course over the 10 weeks have been engaging and well liked by the pupils. Staff have been supportive and approachable and the students have really enjoyed and found the project useful.

There has been good communication and from discussions it is very clear that the organisation advocates for young people and well-being and is passionate about supporting others to reach their potential

There has been a positive impact upon pupils as they have found having a space to work through their emotions and learn the skills invaluable.

During year 7 parents evening we had a parent state that the well-being group is the best part of their child’s week and that they have been talking about what you have been doing and trying the activities/tools at home and feel that it is really very helpful. Parent stated that they were really surprised as in the past their child has not engaged with anything like this even when offered/tried.

With the current climate in schools it is from a pastoral point of view increasingly challenging to manage the workload. Having an external agency come in is extremely helpful and vital to help support some of our pupils that are struggling but also managing at school. This project has been a positive resource that has allowed pupils to access some additional support that we do not always have time to offer due to the daily demands.

It has been helpful for pupils that we have been working with to have a space to work with other professionals to work on skills in a different way to help reinforce the practise and tools that can help to promote positive well-being.

It is appreciated that the team are professional and amazing at what they do as they are able to come into the school and deliver sessions with little input from school staff and communicate well to keep us updated with any concerns or challenges.