On Monday 21^st March our Year 7 pupils enjoyed a visit from Loudmouth Education and Training. The company has delivered Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) sessions since 1994 and has reached over 600,000 children, young people, professionals and parents through the medium of theatre.

Pupils took part in their Talking Heads mental wellbeing programme which looks at the dangers surrounding social media, body image and ways to look after your wellbeing.

Pupils were first treated to a performance form their talented workshop leads who, through their clever storytelling, shared the experiences of pupils their age going through some difficult times regarding wellbeing and the potential danger it leads to such as mental ill health (e.g. anxiety and depression) and the potential causes such as social media.

Following on each form completed a workshop considering how we can avoid the dangers and learning strategies for positive mental wellbeing including the benefits of physical exercise, time outdoors, community participation and voluntary and service-based activities on mental wellbeing and happiness and being connected to others.

The Year 7’s really enjoyed their sessions and the feedback from the pupils has been overwhelming. It has also been a fantastic way to kick of our Wellbeing Week where we are focusing on keeping a positive mental health and looking after our wellbeing through form time sessions, after school clubs and events such as Loudmouth. Across the week pupils will be visiting a different strategy each day to help with their wellbeing. Monday’s top tip is to learn something new each day and cherish the opportunity to learn. Why not have a go at a new skills this week and learn to play the piano, dribble a football or perhaps bake a cake?

This week our focus in assemblies has been our House Charities. These are four organisations selected by our Heads of House that support local causes and provide help for our community in Nuneaton and the surrounding are. With strong links to our Etone Values of being courteous and caring, our Heads of House have been sharing with their respective pupils why they are supporting those charities, detailing the hard work they are putting into society and highlighting the opportunities we provide at Etone to do our bit.

So far we have raised nearly £200 each for our charities from our World Book Day fundraising drive. This was added to our overall fundraising total of over £2,000 so far this year for good causes (of course not forgetting the food and toys donated to the Nuneaton Foodbank and Salvation Army Toy Drive).

It was particularly special to hear first-hand from the representatives of Dragon and Griffin House Charities, Guy’s Gift and Doorway respectively, who shared the aims and story of their charities in addition to thanking our pupils for the fundraising they have done so far. We would like to take the opportunity to thank those charities for coming to see us.

We also look forward to Centaur and Phoenix’s charities coming to see us soon. With more activities and events planned to raise money for our charities we ask you to continue to support us and our local community as always.

Charities:

Guy’s Gift founded in 2009 provides support, guidance and counselling to children and young people in the Coventry and Warwickshire area who experience bereavement. They work with the young and their families to help them through one of the most difficult in a persons life, especially for children. https://www.guysgift.co.uk/

Doorway is a charity that first started in 1997 in Bedworth. Working with CenterPoint the organisation provides accommodation and support for young people who are suffering from homelessness and find themselves in a very difficult time. https://www.doorway.org.uk/

Formed in 1996 the George Eliot Diabetes Support Group aim to deliver support for people with diabetes and their families through a full range of activities and provision. The group also carries out some really important fundraising work in the local area for those suffering. https://www.nhs.uk/services/service-directory/diabetes-uk-george-eliot-diabetes-support-group/N10497993

Mary Ann Evans Hospice strives to enhance the quality of life of people who have a life limiting illness, by offering physical, emotional, social and spiritual support to them, their families and those caring for them. They provide the best end of life care they possibly can to help make a person with a life limiting illness, as comfortable as possible. This in turn, can provide them and their families, some additional time to make some ever lasting memories. https://www.maryannevans.org.uk/

Etone College is a fully inclusive school. We actively promote equality and celebrate diversity. As part of our personal development programme, pupils learn about how we all have things in common but also how we are all different. They learn about the importance of tolerance and respect in all areas of our school life.  Please take a look at our personal development page to find out more – https://www.etonecollege.co.uk/personal-development/.

This term, pupils have been learning about different religions through their Learning for Life lessons and through assemblies. We teach them the Fundamental British Value of respect and tolerance for other faiths and beliefs.  They have also learned about prejudice and discrimination and reflected on how this can impact on the lives of people observing events such as Holocaust Memorial Day in January.  

As always, we encourage our pupils to be active Citizens and support our local community. We are proud to have raised nearly another £800 to support our House charities this month and we already have events planned to raise more money to support Comic Relief on 18^th March.  We could not do this without the support of parents and carers and we genuinely thank you for that. Please check out our live totaliser page to see the amount of money raised so far this year Next week, will see speakers from each charity speaking to our students in assemblies so that they understand how the money they have raised helps people in our local community.

We work hard to support our young people and their next steps and this week sees us host our annual Careers Fair with 30 stalls will represent employers, further education and careers. This gives us a great opportunity to guide all of our pupils about next steps but also to actively engage with our local employers and the local business community.

Pupil wellbeing is at the heart of what we do at Etone and we are a caring and supportive community. We break down stigma around mental illness and promote wellbeing with pupils through events, assemblies and lessons. It has been great to see pupils at our wellbeing drop in and we are looking forward to promoting our wellbeing top tips through our March Wellbeing Week.  Support for pupil wellbeing and signposts to outside agencies can be found on our personal development page.

We also work hard to counteract any stereotypes and to promote equality for all – actively teaching about the Equality Act and protected characteristics.  Next term, will see a celebration of PRIDE in June and the promotion of School Diversity Week in July.  We ensure that we help pupils to stay safe and have been delighted to welcome both Rail Safety and the Police this term to give information and guidance to our pupils.

We are proud of our personal development curriculum here at Etone and the steps that we take to ensure that our learners are able to make informed and responsible decisions, keep themselves safe and are prepared for life in a diverse and modern Britain.