Supporting student wellbeing

Following the success of ‘Reimagining the Diary’, we have now revised our Diary Toolkit to suit the needs of sixth-form students at Pates Grammar School in Cheltenham.

Thanks to the project’s Principal Investigator, Dr Lucy Kelly, we were able to give copies of the teacher version of the Diary Toolkit to a focus group of students who used it for 6 weeks and then provided feedback about how best to alter it for their age group.

The students annotated pages, helped us refine the language to better suit their peers and alter a few of the activities based on their lifestyles and interests.

The revamped Diary Toolkit for students has launched this term, with 250 sixth-form students at Pates receiving their very own copy to use throughout the academic year. We will gather feedback throughout the study to support further iterations of the Diary Toolkit.

‘Reimagining the Diary’ is a research project led by Dr Lucy Kelly at University of Bristol, which has been running for over 3 years. So far, we’ve supported 8 phases of research, each time adding new layers and refinements to the Diary Toolkit in response to participants’ feedback. The toolkit consists of a 3-week starter book with daily wellbeing activities, a set of wellbeing bookmarks and a wooden spinner to help users ‘transition’ into reflective practice with the aid of a short relaxation exercise. We’ve also built a website full of resources and there’s a package of regular ‘check ins’ to help participants stay on track and build a ‘wellbeing community’ around them. So far, the project has focussed on supporting educational professionals, but this move to support students will encourage a school culture of self-care, reflection and a holistic approach to 'time out' for everyone.

Over the past few years, the project has been funded by several grants from the University of Bristol, and the Bupa Health Foundation. This latest round of funding for the student Diary Toolkits comes from the Brigstow Institute with fantastic support from Pates, who are running the initiative as part of a drive to better support staff and student wellbeing. Tutors will be running weekly well-being sessions for their students and are encouraged to use the Diary Toolkit themselves, along with a plethora of school resources to support their wellbeing throughout the year.

Stand + Stare have continually worked with Dr Lucy Kelly and the project team to design and refine the contents of the toolkits, and the collaboration will be further enhanced by Dr Lucy Kelly’s forthcoming book, 'Reimagining the Diary: reflective practice as a positive tool for teacher wellbeing', which will be published by John Catt next year.

For more info visit:  https://lucykellyblog.wordpress.com.