In line with our mantra for wellbeing we work upon wellbeing sessions with the students through in the moment conversations, PSHE sessions and even “hot chocolate” time with the head of site.
Hot Chocolate sessions evolved from a chance to sit and have a relaxed chat, drink and (when ready) play some emotional literacy games with the head of site and now are accessed by many students over the classes. These games are now slowly being introduced into classrooms by the Wellbeing lead SSAs to offer more sessions for students.
These games allow students to join in at their pace and acceptance levels with a game with peers or members of staff. They open conversation and theoretical situations and solutions in a relaxed manner that students can choose to finish when they want to.
Examples are:
“a 5 could make me lose control”
In “a 5 can make me lose control” students can rate if specific situations are something
No pressure is placed upon students to reason why they feel that way; staff may comment how it would make them feel and offer why, especially if it is something they agree with the student on- this relaxed approach usually sees students begin to open up with their reasoning also and shows them everyone feels differently at times and cannot always “handle it”.
The “control game”.
In the “control game” students post ping pong balls into the tube they think best describes what they feel about something such as weather, who they play with, their feelings. From that decision it opens up a possible discussion about how others may answer the question and debate the deeper ethics in a fun way.
The talking cubes
Using the talking cubes each player gets to roll a coloured cube and pose the question on the cube to the group; the cube colours vary the intensity of questions. This game is played with a minimum of 2 staff and 1 student to ensure the pressure of answering for the student does not fall solely upon them at any given time. Staff participants in the group will answer the question and pose can anyone think of any other options, this opens up the floor for the other adult and hopefully the student to give their answer/opinion.
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