Wellbeing Week at UHC has been a great success, organised by 10AG and the student Wellbeing Committee. Students Ryan Grant-Derpepa, Olivia Trevean, and Aryanna Billington have combined forces to tell us about the many activities.

This term 10AG’s Social Studies learning was about taking social action to bring about positive change. A social issue that meant a lot to the class was the mental health awareness and access to support. 

Did you know that New Zealand/Aotearoa has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. According to the Ministry of Health, “ In 2018, there were 623 suicide deaths in Aotearoa New Zealand.” 

COVID also has had a huge effect on the mental health of people at our school and all around the country, the stresses of an unknown disease and missing school because of the lockdowns has caused “a silent pandemic of psychological distress” (University of Auckland's Koi Tu Research Centre). 

The main theme of the week that we wanted to focus on though was the effects of social media on mental health. We know that social media can have detrimental effects on the mental health of young people, and wanted to try to combat that through running wellbeing activities, taking people away from social media. 

10AG wanted to make a difference with this social action starting here at UHC, we did this by donating $670.10 to the Mental Health Foundation from the money raised on non-uniform day. They also did this by making sure all activities were free and widely accessible for all to participate in.

Disconnect from Tech

On the first Monday of Wellbeing Week, a sign-up, alongside popcorn and The Social Dilemma (an eye opening movie about the detrimental effects of social media) was held for the Disconnect from Tech Challenge. This was a challenge for students and teachers to take a break from their social media during school time to improve their mental health/hauora. 

Each person had a unique challenge, from quitting TikTok for the whole week, to not looking at Facebook before going to bed. For those people who did not have social media, they gave themselves a slightly altered challenge, such as not texting friends for that whole week. In the first week of Term Four, there will be another meeting to check in and see how it went, which will include a pizza lunch and finishing off The Social Dilemma.

Bubble Soccer & Inflatable Gladiator 

The Wellbeing Committee also helped bring the fun on Monday with action packed Bubble Soccer, and Inflatable Gladiator in the gym (see pictures). Many students showed up to watch and join even teachers were watching the chaos unfold and even join in briefly. 

Thanks to the Kickstart Youth Centre for helping organise and bring the equipment needed to run this event.

Seedling Planting

Tuesday was a Seedling Planting activity, where students and teachers could plant seeds of beautiful plants into little pots that they decorated. They then can take the seedlings home and continue to nurture them. 

In terms of Mental Health, the seedlings symbolise growth and life in our hauora. This is because both we, and the plants, are ever-growing. We want ourselves to grow in the right direction though, towards being a healthy Hauora, just like how we want our seedlings to grow too. Furthermore, taking the seedlings home and caring for them represents them taking their mental health into their own hands and nurturing it, so that it blooms into a beautiful flower/tree. It was a beautiful moment.

Mindfulness

Additionally the Wellbeing Committee and 10AG helped run a mindfulness session on Thursday. The goal of this activity was to take a moment to slow down and relax with friends over board games, hot chocolate and fairy bread. 

This symbolised the importance of taking time for yourself and for your own wellbeing. Students enjoyed having the opportunity to play board games and have some fairy bread and hot chocolate. Many Junior and Senior students showed up, helped, and participated in the mindfulness session. One thing that was a major highlight in my opinion was that it was completely free for all students to enjoy.

Colour Run (see separate article + pictures)

Then there was the Colour Run. There were 100 students who were keen to participate and had a lot of fun! The purpose of the Colour Run is to give people time to relax and hopefully help improve their mental health. 

We know that school can be hard at times, so the Colour Run is designed to help people get away from their daily stressors and have a good time at school. There were obstacles around the field that the participants had to run around while having colour powder thrown at them, and then they went down the slip ‘n’ slide at the end before doing it all over again! 

It wasn’t just colour though, we also had a drinks station where people could grab a colourful drink, a nail painting station where people could get some colourful nails, and lollipops were also being handed out throughout the action. The awesome participants came out of it with a colourful body and a huge smile on their faces. It was a great turn out and a whole lot of fun!

Overall, our kura’s Wellbeing Week was a blast. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the school’s mental health greatly improved. 

Students came back from the activities buzzing. Teachers felt younger than ever. It was a massive success that achieved its goal of bringing joy to the school and improving people’s mental health and hauora.