Earlier this week, we had a jam-packed “Wellbeing Wednesday” across the entire school. Year 7 explored how to look after their mental health and enjoyed a visit from Zoe Juniper, our Lead Counsellor, and our lovely therapy dog, Kanga, to tell them more about ContemPlace. Sixth Form Ambassadors took on teaching our Year 8 classes about the importance of friendship and conflict resolution. The younger girls particularly appreciated hearing words of wisdom from the older girls who have already navigated the growing pains of early teenagehood. This topic continued it’s trajectory into Year 9 where we had eight workshop leaders come in from the education charity, Let Me Know. Year 9 learnt how to identify healthy and unhealthy friendships/relationships, communicate openly, and advocate for themselves. The girls engaged in lively debates with each other and took away many valuable life lessons. Year 10 received a fantastically informative talk about female health from the lovely Dr Maya Al-Memar, who is a Consultant Gynaecologist at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust. Many of the staff commented afterwards that they wished that they had Dr Maya come and talk to them when they were teenagers! While female health education is improving, misconceptions and stigmas still persist, which is why it is so crucial that we continue debunking myths and eradicating shame surrounding these topics. Year 11 and 12 also had a fascinating talk about “Surviving the world of social media” from writer, campaigner and broadcaster, Natasha Devon. In a world where technology and social media is rampant and cannot be avoided, Natasha offered critical insight into how we can “curate” our social media feeds to positively impact our wellbeing. Finally, Year 13 took on the important question of time management and how to organise their life schedules in order to create a healthy work-life balance, which is particularly vital in their final year of school. This is just a small snapshot into our “Wellbeing Wednesdays”, but we hope it gives you a sense of how seriously we take teaching Life Skills to your daughters and the value of the PSHCE curriculum.

Miss Gajic Murata, Wellbeing Co-Lead