At Lyonsdown we pride ourselves on the pastoral care we offer our girls. Our girls flourish in a secure, stimulating environment that instils confidence and actively promotes wellbeing.
Good mental health and wellbeing is essential for school students. It helps them to learn effectively, cope with day-to-day challenges, and develop into resilient young adults (www.gov.uk 18th November 2022)
This year we have introduced a number of initiatives to ensure our girls’ wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do, these include:
Lyonsdown Values
Be Kind
Be Bold and Brave
Be The Best You Can Be
Three core values as voted in by our School Council, were to summarise what it means to be a Lyonsdown girl. These are now embedded across the school and teacher’s routinely refer to them to encourage a positive and reflective culture amongst our girls.
Pets as Therapy
Norman, our Pets as Therapy dog visits once a week and has already had a huge impact on our girls. The first sessions have been ‘get to know you’ sessions with the girls learning how to approach him, stroke him and even teach him some tricks. It has been a pleasure seeing some of the more nervous girls building their confidence and some even reaching out to stroke a dog for the first time. Norman is enjoying his ReadtoDogs sessions through which our girls are building their confidence, fluency and joy of reading by taking it in turns to share books with him and his owner. Sue, Norman’s owner enjoys the sessions just as much if not even more ‘We are thoroughly enjoying our Wednesday morning visits and it has been the greatest fun for both of us. Norman loves meeting so many kind girls and I am impressed by all the interesting and enthusiastic pupils we have met. Lyonsdown has made us feel so welcome – thank you.’ (Sue, Pets as Therapy volunteer)
‘I was a bit nervous and when I got to pet him it made me feel much better’
‘He feels like clouds’
‘The best thing was, when it was my turn to stroke him, he looked up at me’
‘The best thing was, when it was my turn to stroke him, he looked up at me’
The Happy At Schools Project
The Happy at Schools Project is the brainchild of Christina Mitchel who has been working with Lyonsdown staff in our Inset days.
Christina’s mission – ‘To help young people become the best version of themselves so that they can truly, wholeheartedly thrive.’
To embed this throughout the school Mrs Jenner is leading a series of whole school assemblies teaching simple strategies such as how to achieve your 10/10 best effort, stay in your lane, finding pockets of joy and ‘flip it’ meaning, whilst you can’t control everything that happens in your day, you can control how you react. Put simply – you can flip a negative to a positive.
Our teachers all supported the mission by sharing their superpowers with the girls to help them understand that we all have strengths and we can use these to channel our superselves and achieve whatever we set out to.
Mental Health Awareness Week
At Lyonsdown, we started Mental Health Awareness Week with some calming events throughout the School. Miss Rennie was weaving through each classroom and practising deep breathing exercises with the girls. These simple exercises were an excellent way to reduce stress, calm our minds, and improve our overall well-being.
The girls had the opportunity to listen to the Cello’s beautiful calming, soothing sound in the Sports Hall. This incredible instrument relaxed and uplifted all our spirits. Livia, in Year 5, commented, “I feel much more relaxed already”.
The whole School has learnt a new well-being song called ‘I’ve got feelings’ in their Music class, with Mrs Roberts, they all sang it in Assembly on Friday.
Our clubs offering includes opportunities for girls to focus on wellbeing, Yoga club has been particularly popular, more information can be seen on our clubs page.
Mindful Activities Club
Mindful Activities Club gives the girls the opportunity to explore a range of projects designed to encourage mindful moments, contemplation and relaxation. These activities are often things the girls can repeat or use at home if they need a moment of calm. The highlight of the club was making ‘mindful jars’ which the girls took home to use and share with their family.
