Project teaches five ways to maintain happiness
Schoolchildren have been learning important skills to help them maintain their happiness and wellbeing thanks to an ongoing project delivered by START in partnership with Chichester District Council’s Wellbeing team.
Five Ways to Wellbeing sessions have recently been running at North Mundham Primary School; Portfield Primary School, Chichester; Midhurst Primary School; and Seal Primary Academy, Selsey, amongst others within the district.
The project has been running successfully for several years and supports the mental health of Year Five primary school children, teaching them how to incorporate five positive actions into their daily lives:
• Connect: encouraging children to strengthen and broaden their range of relationships and social networks. It encourages them to spend time with their friends and family whilst staying safe on the internet.
• Be active: stresses you just need to raise your heartbeat and have fun.
• Keep learning: learning can be taken out of the classroom, skills and ideas can be learnt everywhere.
• Take notice: asks children to take time to stop, become aware of their surroundings and listen to their thoughts and feelings about them.
• Give: focuses on how giving and receiving acts of kindness, whether small or large,
can make people feel happier and more satisfied about life.
Sunny and Nadia from
Midhurst spoke about how much the sessions had already made an impact on them: “We had to draw our journeys to school and what we noticed and saw,” explains Nadia. “I really enjoyed that as I saw birds and rabbits this morning.”
Sunny enjoyed how active some of the activities had been and learnt a good way to make feel others included: “I think the best way to get to know people is to make a big game with your friends but let everyone join in, that way everyone gets to have fun.”
Roy Briscoe, district council cabinet member, said: “The young people of today experience a variety of pressures, and as a society we’re much more aware of that and how it affects young people’s wellbeing. Five Ways provides them with tools to help cope with that and learn how to approach life and keep well.”