Stormbreak
Avonwood Strombreak Policy:
Stormbreak Scheme of Work: Stormbreak
Stormbreak Subject Leader(s): Miss Phillips & Miss Moreno
Art Senior Leadership Team Link: Mrs Williams
Twitter: @AvonwoodStormB
Intent
At Avonwood, we believe in developing the whole child. Alongside helping them grow academically, we focus on developing good mental health, which will set the children up to have an optimistic quality of life.
By following Stormbreak, staff at Avonwood have resources to allow the children to learn vital skills to positively shape and support their mental health for life. Stormbreak has 5 principles that everything is based around. These are: resilience, relationships, hope and optimism, self-worth, and self-care.
| Concept |
Definition |
| Resilience |
Children show ability to `bounce back´ from adversity and adapt positively from challenges.
|
| Relationships |
Children show an ability to know how to have meaningful relationships. |
| Hope and optimism |
Children show an ability to have a positive outlook on life.
|
| Self-worth |
Children show an ability to recognise their value and worth and are confident.
|
| Self-care |
Children show an ability to use behaviours to take care of their mental and physical health.
|
Implementation
Stormbreak at Avonwood is implemented during PSHE lessons and in between subjects, giving the children a purposeful participation in movement to support their mental health.
Throughout the use of collective games and simple physical activities that are inclusive and accessible to all, we keep engagement and interaction while valuing the process, rather than the result. An example of an activity would be “Classroom Rockstars”. Here, we divide the class in groups and each group will come up with their unique action that will change every time the adult changes the song. With this collective activity, children can freely and creatively move, celebrating individuality and how each person has different talents, ideas, and personalities.
With these interactions, at Avonwood we create a sense of belonging which directly affects the children’s sense of wellbeing. This encourages children to talk openly and freely without feeling judged, whilst we celebrate their abilities and goals to strengthen their self-worth and potential. We effectively listen, not necessarily to solve a problem, but to make the children at Avonwood feel validated.
Impact
Stormbreak offers many positives for the children at Avonwood. By incorporating this into our daily school life, the children will be able to learn and recognise that there are things that cannot be controlled. This will develop a better awareness of the things happening around them, and the different feelings and emotions within them - smiling, laughing and playing are positive and natural, but it is ok to feel sad, unhappy and worried sometimes.
By helping the child grow as a whole person, at Avonwood we enable them to recognise different thoughts and emotions, value engagement with challenges, and form authentic relationships that develop trust, respect, humility, compassion, kindness and empathy. Learning and practicing these skills offer the children at Avonwood invaluable lessons, and therefore, start to think about goals and aspirations for a positive future and understand ways to work towards these.