Wellbeing at RHS

For the past 18 months, both the Riccarton High School staff well-being team and the student well-being team have been meeting almost weekly with the view to promoting and supporting staff and student well-being. 

The staff well-being team has challenged themselves reflecting on why well-being is important. The ‘why’ of well-being at Riccarton High School is ‘well-being is a prerequisite to living our best life possible’. 

In an educational context simply put when students are well they engage better in their education and are more likely to succeed. When staff are well they engage in the core business of supporting the educational endeavours of our students more effectively.

Well-Being Week

During week five of this term, the student well-being team ran a Well-being Week to raise awareness about well-being. Well-being week used the New Zealand Mental Health Foundation’s five steps to well-being to provide a focus theme for each day of the week. These aspects are: connect, be active, take notice, keep learning, and give. 

Throughout the whole week, we collaborated with the Culture Committee to sell daffodils. We introduced the idea of buying a daffodil and receiving one for free to give to somebody else. In that way, you donated to the Cancer Society when you bought one, and then made someone else’s day by giving away the one you got for free. 

On Tuesday we ran human knots, which were a chance for students to literally connect with one another, as well as be active. 

On Wednesday we had Phil from’ Attitude’ come to assembly and talk to us about mental health, which covered the keep learning part of the five Steps to Well-being. We also had a 'compliment speaker' out in lunch. The Deans acted as the ‘compliment speaker’. Some students also gave compliments to students through a speaker as they walked by, which hopefully would have made their day or at least made some smile. This covered the aspect of giving as well as taking notice. 

Finally, on Friday we had a day of silence. We were very pleased with the number of people that participated and got stuck in. The Day of Silence is a national day of action in which students across the country vow to take a form of silence to call attention to the effect of LGBTQ bullying and harassment. Students chose how long they wanted to be silent for, some even wore tape on their mouths, and we also had a photo stand with a Day of silence frame to take pictures with and post to social media. The point of this day was not to praise who could be silent the longest, but to praise those who did this with acknowledgement and awareness of the purpose. 

Our well-being team is extremely proud of how well this week went. The purpose of this week wasn't only just because it was prelims the next week, we decided to have this week because looking after your well-being is so important. We do realise that schools especially, can shy away from the topics of mental health etc, which is why we had this week. Our school will be closer once we talk about these topics and let students know that they are not alone, that they actually have around 1000 people to turn to at Riccarton High, whether it be students, counsellors, or teachers. 

Personal well-being should come before anything. You don't need a well-being week to continue doing these things. You can stay being active, connecting, giving, taking notice and learning wherever you go. If in any way, you find that this is not the case, there are plenty of people to turn to, even if it sometimes may not feel like it. 

We thank everybody who helped to make this week the way it ended up being, and hopefully you all understand our aim and purpose.