Well-being
Middle School Well-being
In the 4th and 5th Forms, all pupils have one lesson of Well-being per fortnight to equip them with some of the skills they will need to lead flourishing lives, forming part of the four year well-being programme stretching from 3rd Form to LVIth. The skills that are taught emanate not only from recent scientific research into human flourishing, but also from centuries of reflection on what it means to be human. The lessons follow a simple format: pupils are encouraged to discuss or think about a particular issue relating to being human (such as the need for sleep, or the way that we deal with each other in relationships) and they are taught an ‘intervention’: a practical skill to help them to develop that area of their lives (for example, mindfulness meditation or practising a random act of kindness). Pupils are then encouraged to experiment with that intervention to see if it works and to write about its success critically in their well-being prep. The Well-being course is made up of 6 strands, which are covered over the course of the 4th and 5th Forms:
- Physical health
- Positive relationships
- Perspective: building a psychological immune system
- Engagement: getting stuck in and staying stuck in to worthwhile activities
- The world: learning to lead sustainable lives in a consumer culture
- Meaning and purpose: what might life hold in store?
The pre-eminent focus of this course is on what a flourishing human life looks like and is complemented by talks on substance misuse and sex and relationships delivered by experts in those fields and which build upon the peer-led alcohol and drugs education programme and the sex and relationships education received in the 3rd Form.
More details about the course can be found here: http://wellbeing.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/
Mr Ian Morris: irm@wellingtoncollege.org.uk
Sixth Form Well-being
All pupils in the Lower Sixth Form have one lesson per fortnight in Well-being. The L6th Form course focuses on what it means to be a moral agent and it takes pupils through some of the different mechanisms we use as humans to make decisions which benefit the world. The course is augmented by sessions on our low and high ropes courses which are designed to explore the relationships between emotions and reasoning.
The course content for the L6th programme can be found here: http://well-being.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/year-12/
Mr Ian Morris: irm@wellingtoncollege.org.uk