All Saints’ win big at Wellbeing Awards
BY ALL SAINTS’ 9MT PUPIL CHRISTOPHER KELLY-BROWN THIS school year, All Saints’ was chosen to take part in the Wellbeing Challenge; a group introduced to All Saints’ by Lancashire Mind and is run by positive Action in the Community (PAC).
The group aims to improve pupils’ mental health and the charity is focused on improving mental health in Lancashire.
It is the same group that organised the highly successful Wellbeing Day.
Our Wellbeing Challenge group included Leoni Coyle (9MT), Ruby Wilson (9MT), Caitlin Molloy (9MT), Christopher Kelly-Brown (9MT) and Mairead Graham (9R). For our entry and following extensive research, we developed a Rewards Camp that aims to revise the school’s rewards system, revamp the school council by introducing ‘student voice’ and create a wellbeing event that includes both pupils and staff in the whole school.
This was pitched to our senior leadership team and then rolled out to all through assemblies.
On Wednesday, July 3, Leoni, Ruby, Caitlin, Christopher and Miss Jackson attended the Wellbeing Challenge Awards event at Ribby Hall in Blackpool.
The awards event kicked off with an extremely powerful talk by the footballer Clarke Carlisle about how depression affected every aspect of his life and how he could have got through it so much easier if he had just asked for help sooner.
The day was filled with various awards such as ‘most sustainable’ or ‘most creative’.
There were various forms of entertainment, such as an original song about overcoming mental illness performed by Fylde Coast Youth Theatre and even a magician during lunch!
Lunchtime also saw trays of delicious food to go with the complimentary ice-cream and we just couldn’t resist coming back for seconds and in some cases, thirds!
After lunch, there was another performance by the theatre group and more rewards.
By this point we had nearly lost all hope of winning an award.
When it came to the overall Wellbeing Challenge Award 2019 we were shocked when a volunteer read out our school’s name!
This was awarded to us for being exceptional and standing out, and in addition to the etched glass plaque, we each received an individual reward for our contributions.
What the judges said about the project: “This project was led by a mature team who displayed compassion, selflessness and inclusivity throughout everything they did.”
It was a brilliant day full of surprises and laughter, and we can’t wait to improve the wellbeing in school even more!