At Atelier 21, we recognise that having positive mental health is a driving force towards a successful experience both in school and beyond. Drawing upon Guy Claxton’s Big 6 Learnable Intelligences we aim to promote positive mental health and wellbeing for our whole school community (children, staff, parents and carers), and recognise how important mental health and emotional wellbeing is to our lives in just the same way as physical health. We recognise that children’s mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing and can affect their learning and achievement. All children go through ups and downs during their school career and some face significant life events
Some of the ways we promote good mental and physical wellbeing are:
In Primary School we often start the day with mindfulness practices be it colouring, stories, sharing gratitude or entering neuroscience child friendly diaries and workbooks. That’s how seriously we take wellbeing, because setting up your day feeling calm, centred and ready to be curious feels good!
We have weekly PSHE lessons and class meetings designed to support our children’s wellbeing by exploring how our minds, bodies, relationships and personal mindset affect our wellbeing. Pupils also take part in yoga sessions with a qualified children’s Yoga instructor.
We have a wonderful chef at Atelier 21 who ensures that we have healthy and nutritious meals. These meals are eaten together, with our teachers. It is a time to connect and reflect. Over the course of our school week, we are given many opportunities to connect with children from other year groups. In our Wednesday workshops, we learn and collaborate alongside 6-8 children from other classes.
Our ‘Wild Fridays’ ensure that our Prep school children are actively learning outside, in nature, every single week. Being situated in Broadfield Park allows us to climb trees, run and play on the field, for at least an hour every day. We are fortunate to have an experienced PE teacher who teaches PE twice a week. Additionally, Reception, Year One and Year Two swim weekly at the K2 Leisure Centre. The remaining classes each swim for half a term each academic year.
Noticing is one of our ‘Learning Powers’ at Atelier 21 Future School. We practice mindfulness daily and really see the value of weaving this into all that we do. Our resident yoga teacher visits once a week.
As another of our highly regarded ‘Learning Powers,’ kindness is paramount to our Wellbeing and we celebrate kindness through regular ‘Kindness weeks,’ ongoing training with the whole school community and daily class meeting.
The Big 6 Learnable Intelligences are: Interpersonal Skills, Mental Agility, Thinking Skills, Decision Making Skills, Emotional Intelligence, Character Development
