WELLBEING IN ACTION

Sarah Gomm of Oakham School discusses wellbeing and pastoral learning – and its newly introduced connected curriculum

From workshops with expert speakers and dedicated lesson time to discuss wellbeing, pastoral learning and care have become Oakham School’s key focuses as part of its newly introduced connected curriculum. Pastoral care is far more important than anything else we teach children in school. I speak to a lot of parents, I teach Chemistry and I’m a big believer in all of the wonderful things we o er at Oakham School but, while exam results and academia are important, you can probably go through school without understanding covalent bonding, but you absolutely can’t go through life without knowing how to look after your wellbeing.

If you’re feeling in a good place, we know that you’re more ready to learn. There’s a significant link between academic resilience and personal resilience, so if you’re in a state of mind where you’re happy and healthy, your ability to learn and achieve will be significantly higher. Wellbeing falls into many di erent facets. Pastoral care is focused on what people do to you – your parents, your teachers or your peers – and anything that you are on the receiving end of. It is also about the actions that you do to help your friends.

Pastoral learning is much more focused on learning to care for yourself. This looks at self-care, where pupils are developing their understanding of what they can do to selfregulate their emotions and to ensure that their mental and physical wellbeing are in good shape. Topics such as consent, equality and diversity and how to manage your mortgage are also key skills that young people need to learn.

We are very mindful to teach pupils how to build resilience and the skills they need to develop their own pastoral wellbeing.

It’s also important that they understand why pastoral care and pastoral learning matter, so that when they leave us they have good knowledge of themselves and what they need to do to keep both mentally and physically in shape.

Our Connected Curriculum

The introduction of our connected curriculum means that pastoral learning will be taught across Oakham School to all of our pupils during lesson time by specialist sta . The additional class time will allow us to really focus on wellbeing and make time for these hugely important lessons. It supports our existing tutorial programme and the work our excellent Housemasters and Housemistresses do.

There are some pupils who flourish when they are busy and there are others who may struggle to balance things in the same way. Our role is to help each of our pupils find what the right level of busyness is for them so that they can enjoy themselves without feeling overly pressured or losing the joy in what they are doing.