Wellness is much more than the absence of illness.

Wellbeing has been a hot topic for many years now. It is much more than a buzzword and/or a phase. “According to the World Health organisation...mental illness is predicted to be the greatest cause of disability by 2030, meaning many of today’s school entrants will likely be affected by the time they graduate from school.” (The Educators’ Guide to Whole-School Wellbeing)

What is wellbeing?

What does it include?

What types of things can we do to stay well?

These are just a few of the questions we are discussing with our students at OLA and OLV. Both schools have taken on a bite-size learning approach to look at each of the five areas of wellbeing and the five ways to wellbeing. (See images below)

At Our Lady of the Assumption School, we have been doing whole school mindfulness for several years now. As soon as the bell rings after lunch, students enter the classroom and get ready for their daily mindfulness. Twice a term we pause our mindfulness practice for the week and replace this time with mini-sessions on a specific area of wellbeing. This includes short presentations, videos, and discussion questions that all classes carry out. We are now on our second cycle of whole-school wellbeing mini-sessions and this year we have introduced family wellbeing challenges as well. (See upcoming article soon).

Our Lady of Victories has taken on a similar approach at their school. They have modified this approach to suit their needs, which includes a focus per term with mini-sessions being delivered fortnightly, and regular mindfulness activities throughout the week.

If you would like to find out more about this approach to wellbeing, please let me know. I am happy to share all the resources that have been created as well as talk to you about great mindfulness resources as well.

I am also excited that our school has agreed to be trained through Pause, Breath, Smile later this year, as this will be great PD for our whole staff which in turn will benefit our students.

Danielle Marston

danielle.marston@ola.school.nz