School Wellbeing
Apart from COVID, stress is the epidemic of the 21st Century. We are surrounded by weapons of mass distraction on a daily basis. The costs of stress have never been so high and the benefits of wellbeing to personal happiness and success have never been better understood. Wellbeing helps people be happy, healthy, focussed and at their best.
The costs of stress, depression and anxiety are increasingly evident in educational institutions. A 2018 survey found that one in four students said they feel stressed at the end of the day and find it hard to concentrate and over 50% of students have difficulty concentrating in class or on study because of day-to-day stress. Stress is contagious. Learner stress adds to teacher stress. In April 2019 it was announced that Leaving Cert results day in 2017 was the busiest day that year for calls to the Samaritans. COVID and related challenges have greatly accelerated the already negative trends in mental health and burnout across schools. Almost sixty percent reported that their mental health/well-being has been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic (CSO, Ireland study February 2021).
When people learn positive habits that support their wellbeing at a young age, it gives a strong foundation for life-long resilience, health, happiness and engagement in life.
Creating a ‘Well-culture’ in Your School
School years are a time of stress for many young people. The desire to fit in and yet to simultaneously stand out can cause many pressures. Many struggle with self-acceptance and finding their place in the world. The pressures of growing up are increasingly affecting the youth of today as newer life stresses like social media, COVID and related challenges and the societal stress epidemic heighten the challenge to our students’ mental health on a daily basis.
Our wellbeing programmes will help your school make sense of ‘wellbeing’ at a practical level and enable you to see clearly how you can boost the wellbeing of your students and teachers, introduce wellbeing in a meaningful way in your curricula and create a well-culture in your school.
Our Programmes
- Programme 1: Wellbeing planning for school leaders and wellbeing coordinators
Do you run a Lifeskills module? We can help you develop a module that will incorporate Wellbeing across the Junior Cycle (including CSPE and SPHE and PE) - Programme 2: Wellbeing coaching for the school leaders / teachers
This can be provided on a one to one or a group basis and designed to meet your specific needs and goals. - Programme 3: Wellbeing mentoring tool kit
Delivery of Wellbeing modules to school leaders, teachers and students
Alternatively we can provide bespoke programmes based on your wellbeing needs.
Wellbeing Modules
Our wellbeing programmes help teachers to support students boost wellbeing and realize their potential. Our programmes help teachers understand wellbeing at a deep and very practical level. Our modules are bespoke. Our main focus is to help teachers and the school culture support students’ wellbeing. We also help students directly through our wellbeing modules and we also have modules for parents. Our programmes ultimately give students insights and tools to overcome challenges and disappointment, effectively manage stress and create and live a happy, balanced and engaged life. Our programs provide a clear and simple framework to boost wellbeing – with particular emphasis on mental, emotional and social wellbeing and related targets in line with the Junior Cycle Wellbeing curriculum and other school objectives. We mainly work at post primary level but our programmes can be adapted to primary and third level too.
Popular topics include:
- How to create and sustain a well culture in your school
- The wellbeing toolkit for teachers and school leaders
- How to bring wellbeing into your classroom?
- How to bring wellbeing into your junior cycle curriculum?
- How to find your motivation?
- How to overcome anxiety and effectively manage stress?
- Focus for happiness and success
- The art of switching off (relaxation)
- Digital wellbeing
All of our school wellbeing programmes are evidence based and designed and delivered by Calodagh McCumiskey who is an accredited thought leader in wellbeing.