A week of wellbeing; Bishop Henderson Primary School turned their focus to wellbeing for a week of fun and educational visits from inspirational volunteers.

Kelly Hillier, Bishop Henderson Primary School teacher, told The Journal: “We have had a big focus on wellbeing at Bishop Henderson Primary School and our students have risen to the challenge. Obviously, after covid the effect on mental health has been detrimental. We now have twenty-five well-being champions who are dedicated to helping out at break times by spending time looking after children who may be feeling upset or not included. They also take part in assemblies raising awareness of different ways to look after themselves, such as healthy eating, exercise and the importance of sleep.

“We focused on putting together a 'well-being week' for the pupils on the week commencing October 10th. We really wanted to make it a fun, happy and knowledgeable experience for the students and help them to acknowledge the importance of looking after their own wellbeing and that of others. Also to provide opportunities for them to seek new hobbies and ways of looking after their mental health. We were overwhelmed by the volunteers in our local community who came to visit the children with specially adapted talks and tasks;

“Jim and his dog Flow paid a special visit to explain how they ran the equator distance of 25,000 miles together, visiting schools along the way! Jim’s first ever talk took place at Bishop Henderson School, Coleford, in 2015! We invited him back and he talked about his running adventures and their marvellous encounters with nature and wildlife, then the whole school went out outside to take part in an exciting group run, all supporting and encouraging each other. This was a big hit with the students and it was wonderful seeing them all high fiving and cheering each year group around the course, creating a sense of unity and engaging with each other to encourage their fellow classes around the track.

“Laura Seymour, from Serenity Sensory Music, came in to give the students an opportunity to use different musical instruments and created a wonderful, tranquil area with beautiful calming lights. The students thoroughly enjoyed creating musical sounds and listening to the different tunes they could make, the lights really helped them to feel relaxed.

“Radiance, who offer yoga classes for children, was born from a desire to help children be happier, healthier and more in tune with their emotions. Our Owl Class were able to have a wonderful yoga session based around the story of the ‘Hungry caterpillar’. The children loved the session coming away feeling happy and excited.

“The Wiltshire Outdoor Learning Team visited us to do some low level team challenge tasks and activities, that will be some mental, some physical. They had different activity stations set up and all children had the opportunity to try each one.

“Dancing with Libby came in to teach street dancing to the Owls and ballet to the Puffins. They had the most amazing time showing off their dance moves!

“We had an assembly with Jeremy Wade from the River Monsters series. He spoke to us about what he does for his wellbeing and he stressed the importance of being mindful of nature. As a school, we tried to list as many types of birds as we could. The students asked some fantastic questions and really engaged with Jeremy talking about all the birds they have seen.

“Kingfisher class took part in some art, producing a collage that will be displayed in our wellbeing room. They created their piece using wellbeing photos and phrases. They had the most fantastic time creating the art work and really enjoyed putting their own pictures, words and phrases onto the piece.

“Tom and Rebecca Moore - A local author aka Captain Redbeard, visited our school. He is a children’s author and has written a book series called ‘The Secret Slide’. The children asked Tom some fantastic questions about his writing. He told us about his inspirations for his stories and also told us that his wife is the illustrator for his books. It was a big inspiration for the students and its inspired them to write their own stories and draw their own illustrations.

“Indigo Archery: Kestrel and Kingfisher class had the opportunity to try archery in the playground. They really enjoyed the chance to have a go and some children were even hitting a bullseye!

“At Forest school, thhey made swings, hedgehogs, animal faces and so much more. It gave the students an opportunity to be outside with nature and explore all the wonderful things that you can do with natural materials.

“The Somerset Earth Science Centre came along for the day and brought fossils, part of a mammoth tusk, rocks for the students to see and hold. They made dinosaur foot prints, looked closely at fossils, did some fossil printing and even had a go at finding fossils in rocks. The students found this to be so interesting and didn't stop talking about all the wonderful fossils they got to see. They really enjoyed excavating for fossils and were aloud to keep some fossils to look at in their classrooms.

‘I can & I am’ are a charity who are passionate about inspiring confidence and self belief. They brought their double decker bus to the school for the Kestrels and Kingfishers to visit. They made their own pizzas and completed a well-being activity. The children spoke about their positive attributes and places they feel they belong in. The staff members hopped on the bus at the end of the day too to do the exact same activities!

“Dogs for Health brought two therapy dogs to visit the students, their names were Molly and Clover. This charity works with schools, hospitals and for individual people by taking their therapy dogs to visit them.

“We had great support via recorded messages of support for the students from amazing British Athletes, Olympians, Paralympians, authors. Our biggest support was cbeebies who made us a wonderful wellbeing video message for everyone and Bishop Henderson, the children were buzzing to see Evie from the cbeebies channel giving them words of encouragement.”