Tuesday 28th April 2020
Outside the Box A newsletter helping the Box Hill School community stay together, stay informed and stay happy.
“Great Minds Don’t Think Alike”
Daily Wellbeing Tasks Take time today to be with family/friends – dinner or Zoom meeting.
The start of the Summer Term Welcome back! We hope that you have all had a good break despite the challenging circumstances and have made the most of this opportunity to spend time with family, read, enjoy the fantastic weather and use technology to keep in touch with friends. Over Easter, we have been readying ourselves for a continuation of remote learning and we have started the new term combining videoconference lessons with more self-guided tasks for students to complete at their own pace. In addition, daily registrations have been implemented; a great opportunity for tutors and students to catch up and work together to solve any issues that may arise. These registration sessions are hugely important not just so that we can check in with students but also so that they can check in with each other and have some much-need social contact with their friends. Although sadly this welcome will have to remain a virtual one for the time being, we look forward to being able to return to School in person!
Do something active – it does not matter what. Get the heart pumping. Start learning a new skill! Give something to someone else. Be attentive to the present – breathe, eat, exercise mindfully
As the first Pastoral newsletter, it is worth reminding everyone reading that the model for pastoral care at Box Hill School quite clearly places the child at the very centre of everything we do. This means that we, as a community, are all responsible for doing all that we can to ensure the wellbeing of our students. After all, “it takes a village to raise a child.” Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us; all the usual Pastoral care structures remain in place.
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Wellbeing …is everywhere at the moment. But for good reason. Wellbeing is to some extent at the heart of everything we as humans do. We buy a new phone because we think the phone, or the apps, or the status we achieve by having a shiny new toy, will make us happy. SPOILER ALERT. It won’t. Wellbeing/happiness/positive mental health/eudaimonia (the Ancient Greek word loosely translated as ‘flourishing’); whatever you want to call it, it involves to some degree the five components in the image above. What can be done, from the relative isolation of lockdown, to accomplish these five components of happiness and flourish? Wellbeing is also about maintaining a healthy mind. Mental health is more than just the absence of mental illness though. It relates to a goal of achieving and maintaining a state of wellbeing where one can: ▪ ▪ ▪
make the most of one’s potential cope with life play a full part in family, workplace, community and among friends Many people have been finding new ways to connect with their friends and family when not physically with them. A good way is a Zoom quiz – take turns setting a quiz each week and have a good excuse to spend some quality time with your nearest and dearest. In the meantime though, try these brain teasers on for size: i) A farmer in Somerset owns a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner has called the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to purchase. The farmer knows that the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver? ii) What five letter word does every Oxford graduate pronounce wrong? iii) Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain on earth?
Useful Resources There is a huge amount out there to provide support for those who need it. Have a look at some of the websites listed to the right or if you would prefer a more familiar voice, keep reading and click the link provided to hear Cathy Coombs’ introduction to Wellbeing and what you can do to safeguard your mental health and that of your children, and what we as a School can do to help.
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e-safety With the increasing importance of screen usage, the Pastoral Team have put together some useful information links for online safety. We were due to have Karl Hopwood, an expert in this field, speak at a parent lecture this term. In the absence of this, we really would recommend listening to Karl discussing some of the challenges posed by modern technology: https://www.talkingteenagers.co.uk/podcasts/internet-safety
Quiz Can you name all the apps in this image?
Useful Links www.internetmatters.org – A one-stop shop for all things “e-safety”, aimed at parents. Bookmark this website! www.childnet.com – Hugely useful and engaging website aimed more at young people themselves. www.ceop.police.uk – A Government-funded, Police website focused more on illegal online behaviours such as cyber-bullying and grooming.
Counselling Students are incredibly fortunate at Box Hill to have access to a wonderful counsellor, Cathy Coombs. She has recorded a Zoom introduction here: https://zoom.us/rec/play/uZQrc-n8z03SNyUsgSDBKN_W46_Kays0SkYr_IFnkywVHYHM1DwYOQUZrZv2q5sG9GVno2QSl84iskE?continueMod e=true
Password - K2#E2#%% During these challenging times, she is available for one-to-one remote counselling for students so please get in touch if you would like to speak to her. She is also offering small group counselling sessions to students so if either of these options appeals, email (cathy.coombs@boxhillschool.com) who can book you in.
Contacts Sue Salmon, Deputy Head Pastoral
susan.salmon@boxhillschool.com
James Trinder, Assistant Head Pastoral
james.trinder@boxhillschool.com
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Advice for parents during coronavirus
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Where in the school were these pictures taken? Answers in the next newsletter.
And finally … Cathy Coombs, our School Counsellor, is also a trained Mindfulness Meditation Practitioner. She has recorded a short introductory meditation, that can be found here: https://zoom.us/rec/play/7pclc-v7pzs3S4adsQSDC_IvW9W4Ka-s23UZPNYnkuzVyVRZgDwZeMXauA4e5AYFLm6ko3R8DrxTad6?autoplay=true&startTime=1588062250000
Password - 3v?1z.lP