Pastoral care and Wellbeing are at the very heart of all that we do at Solefield. Led by Mrs Koheji, we were very proud to achieve a national Wellbeing Award in 2022, which recognised the outstanding initiatives that have been put in place to help support our pupils’ mental health.
Following on from this achievement, we are now working towards gaining the Pupil Resilience Award. Self-care, self-esteem and respect for others will continue to be at the core of this journey, as we help pupils to develop their resilience, enabling them to manage challenges in their lives, whilst being open to new experiences and opportunities.
At school and at home we will be able to work together to help Solefield pupils become more emotionally, physically and intellectually resilient.
At Solefield we pride ourselves on offering pupils many exciting physical challenges through Sport, P.E, trips and clubs and within the daily routine of school life. Mr Henry’s Push Up Challenge has inspired pupils, staff and parents to improve their strength, whilst encouraging determination and a positive attitude. Importantly, pupils have been taking small steps each day to gradually increase the total amount of push ups they can do. A great strategy for learning new skills and knowledge. Tally charts of completed push ups are proving to be very popular in form rooms and totals are rising every day. Well done, everyone!
Next term, pupils will have the chance to sign up for a new Gym Club organised by Mr Cramp at The Better Body Group. Here pupils (Years 5-8) will have the opportunity to take part in the BBG Young Athlete Development Programme. Trial gym sessions are already underway.
Motivational guest speakers will also form part of our resilience programme and we were all delighted to listen to Jemma from Restless Development in assembly, who came in to talk to us about taking part in a triathlon. Many of our pupils will be signing up to take part at the next opportunity.
Christmas Resilience Challenges
Before the end of term Miss Adams will send out information about the Christmas Challenges. There will be activities for all ages and we hope that families will also join in and learn a new skill or two.
New gold resilience stickers will be given to pupils who complete any of the resilience challenges.
Language and Culture of Resilience
Every day our pupils continue to develop their emotional vocabulary, using the Zones of Regulation as a means of confidently expressing their feelings and describing their emotions.
Growth mindset and the use of resilience language are key areas that will be covered as our pupils work on developing their resilience.
Zones of Regulation
Additional activities and challenges will continue to form a big part of our RSHE and Wellbeing lessons, helping to promote a resilient culture in school. Displays of posters, quotations, role models and work completed by pupils will be displayed around school as we work towards achieving our Gold Award.
Pupils have been busy creating posters to illustrate what resilience means to them and have enjoyed learning about the power of “Yet”. The simple use of the word “yet” at the end of a negative sentence can be motivating and empowering and many of our pupils are starting to use this word to positive effect.
Mrs Rogan will be creating a Resilience Help Shelf, in our wonderful Library, which will provide a place where pupils from all ages can access a variety of books on the theme of Resilience and other related topics.
Thanks to Mrs Koheji, pupils already have access to a Calm Corner in the Library and there are plans to create a new Quiet Room for all to enjoy in the next few weeks.
Financial Resilience
Promoting financial resilience is something that we are also keen to develop in our pupils as preparation for everyday life in school and beyond.
Years 7 and 8 will be attending a series of workshops in the summer term run by the charity MyBnk. The pupils will have the opportunity to take part in a highly interactive financial education programme, which helps to build young people’s knowledge around budgeting, bank statements, overdrafts, different types of bank accounts and other important aspects of financial education.
Year 3 will also be taking part in a very exciting “Super Smoothie Workshop”, which will introduce them to the concept of enterprise, buying, selling and budgeting in a series of group activities involved in setting up a smoothie shop.
Other year groups will also have the opportunity to work with money in real life situations, in lessons and in workshops to develop their financial resilience.
Digital Resilience
Another exciting development will be the introduction of Digital Ambassadors at Solefield led by Mr Bowden. This committee will be responsible for canvassing opinion and ideas from their forms on digital concerns and issues. The older pupils will be responsible for reviewing and redrafting the current code of practice with Mr Coston and they will also have the challenge of creating an online quiz/assessment for the younger pupils that would test their knowledge and understanding of online safety. There are also plans for there to be a digital question/suggestion box and a digital version on Teams.
Rising to the Challenge – Latest News
Our Year 7 pupils recently took part in an exciting physical challenge at King’s School Rochester. Their determination to climb the wall was impressive and their teambuilding skills were great too!
We are all very excited about our Resilience Award journey.
During the coming weeks we will share information on how you can support your child on their journey to becoming more resilient.
