Our Wellbeing framework covers many areas of Wellness and continues to focus on the Engage, Relate and Shine pillars which form the foundations to our model.The month of October has seen a focus on Student Leadership and Student Voice. It is extremely important to allow students a platform to take ownership of their own experiences at BISP. Our philosophy of leadership challenges all students to take responsibility for their own learning and their own passions & wellbeing. Creating cohorts of ‘Leaders for Tomorrow‘ requires every student to feel valued and listened to both in and outside of the classroom.
The student Senior Leadership team continues to reflect the strategic direction of the school. Led by the Head Students, regular meetings and initiatives are continually taking place to further enhance positive experiences for the students on a daily basis:
- Engage members are working on projects that evaluate the way they learn and to examine the types of learning activities that best engage them in their work.
- Relate members have raised Mental Health awareness and explored opportunities to support students in coming forward and talking about their concerns and challenges.
- Shine members are working behind the scenes with the school nutritionist and chef to further develop exciting food options for the community. They are also set to launch a ‘walk and talk’ group in the new year.
- The Events team have just run a fantastic Spirit Week which involved lunch-time activities to build collaboration and relationships between year groups. This culminated in a successful school disco for Halloween organised by students, supported by staff and enjoyed by all, including by students from other local schools. To see Year 13 students dancing and laughing with younger students is without doubt wellbeing in action!
A huge part of wellbeing is a sense of belonging. The school is proud of its Colour Team system which brings students from all ages together to compete in both sporting and non-sporting activities and this year the Colour Captains have been busy raising the profile of this competition even further.- The Captains led their Teams to compete in the fiercely contested Tug of War competition every lunch-time last week, which garnered enormous support from spectating team members and staff.
- They have also been interviewing students in Years 7 to 12 for the positions of year leader. This process not only builds up their leadership portfolio, but is a great example of a student-led initiative that is working to increase leadership opportunities for younger students across BISP.
- The newly-enlarged Colour Leadership Team will be meeting shortly to help plan other events taking place later this year. This will allow them to showcase their skills in a safe and supportive manner, bringing a sense of community and belonging to their Colour Team.
At BISP, we believe in the power of student voice and student leadership to create an ethos of togetherness which permeates into all aspects of students’ wellbeing. The concept of building compassion and empathy are cornerstones of our wellbeing model and is clearly being demonstrated through opportunities for students to lead and to be heard.