View from the Top: Polly Holbrook on the importance of teaching wellbeing to the very youngest children

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For this week's View from the Top, Polly Holbrook, the head of Sandroyd School's bucolic Pre-Prep The Walled Garden, talks about why she believes it is so important to incorporate wellbeing sessions into the school timetable from the very get-go.

I was an adult before I learned how my brain works - I was never taught the powerful role of my limbic system, or the role my amygdala plays in the ‘fight or flight’ reaction most of us have experienced. Consequently, I had no idea why my pulse raced before an exam, I would feel sick before standing on stage, and panic attacks became part of my life. Had I been equipped with the tools to understand my emotions, my teenage years and early adulthood would have felt far less tiring, confusing and even terrifying.

‘Wellbeing’, ‘mindfulness’ and ‘growth mindset’ have become part of the vernacular within schools, however, they are being used with such freedom that they are at risk of becoming mere buzzwords. At The Walled Garden, they’re everyday words but we have rebranded them within our new wellbeing programme for every child from age two. Using the words is not enough; they need to be a meaningful part of life. We focus on equipping our children with the tools they need to overcome the various challenges they will face as they grow. We cannot hope that sporting opportunities, music and art activities, and the curriculum alone will provide all they need to build resilience. They need to understand their brains.

Knowing that we have to lead by example, our timetable has been reconfigured to provide staff with weekly wellbeing sessions, whilst the children have daily mindfulness periods and the PSHE curriculum has been redesigned to include brain studies. Teachers provide regular ‘moments of mindfulness’, children write in reflection journals and a calm corner has been designed for those who need to re-centre. A walk around the pre-prep shows how embedded the wellbeing programme is becoming: children can be seen with a straw and paint linking bubbles (neurons) to demonstrate the connections made in the brain; others map out what their brains can do, and some can be seen tracing their fingers as they breathe in and out. All learn about the ‘power of yet’ - ‘I can’t do ….’, it is replaced with ‘I can’t do ….. yet’. We teach the parents these skills too so they can support their children.

It is our hope that our children are filling their wellbeing toolbox so they can meet life’s challenges with understanding and knowledge.

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View from the Top: Polly Holbrook on the importance of teaching wellbeing to the very youngest children

TE Schools Advice