EDUCAT ION
hours in education, says the charity YoungMinds. Schools that allocate even a small percentage of this on well-being can potentially have a life-transforming impact on their pupils. In Cambridgeshire, they’re passionate about its importance in equipping pupils with the skills to cope with the challenges of life. “Well-being is the essence of what every school is trying to achieve: a well- balanced pupil, who has a sense of who they are, enjoys living life to the full, is ambitious about what they want to become and has a sense of working with others and for others,” says Helen Hynd. One major issue, inevitably, is the ability of social media to undermine children’s sense of well-being, believes Dave Watkin. “You look online and everybody else has got an amazing life and you haven’t. How do you compare yourself to that, to perfection and think ‘yes, I’m every bit as good as that’? That’s the pressure kids have every minute of every hour of every day, and it’s a huge challenge for them.” A disproportionate focus on exams can also be a problem. According to figures from the charity YoungMinds, seven out of ten parents believe exams are less important than happy schools.
“One major issue, inevitably, is the ability of social media to undermine children’s sense of well-being”
That focus on the individual is also a priority at St Faith’s. “It’s about being happy and safe and having a feeling of being valued for who you are,” says the head, Nigel Helliwell. “For a school community to be cohesive and happy, pupils need to learn to appreciate and value the differences in others.” He’s a keen believer in the small details, writing and hand-delivering a birthday card for each child. “The subliminal message here is that we value each and every individual, irrespective of their abilities and achievements. The key principle is that the school should adapt to the child, not the other way around.”
It’s an attitude that Richard Palmer, head of St Christopher School, Letchworth Garden City, can sympathise with. “We think exam success is a product of overall happiness, not the other way around, so we place a high value on students passing through the school gates each morning looking forward to their day ahead,” he says. “St Christopher prides itself on the contentedness of its students, and on each one of them reaching their own personal goals – not a standardised notion of success, which can be a difficult value to uphold in a world of league tables and education reforms.”
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C A M B S E D I T I O N . C O . U K
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