Luton's Wigmore Primary celebrate Gold success for health and well-being

The Twyford Drive school recently received the award from Luton Borough Council, due to their focus on mental health, by raising awareness with both staff and students.

Ten staff received mental health first aid training, while there was a focus on Mindfulness in the school, with activities to improve listening and attention, and to help children “be in the present moment”.

Samin Qadri,school health and wellbeing coordinator, said: “We have found it to be very effective in improving children’s listening and attention, their engagement with the tasks, behaviour and attitudes, anxiety and stress levels.

“The children enjoy and like doing mindful activities, as it gives them opportunities to talk about how they feel and share their thoughts.”

Activities included ‘sittinglike a frog’ and ‘mindful smiling’, while deputy head, Tara Chavda, ran an Eco Club to highlight the connection between nature and wellbeing.

The school chose to focus on mental health after they took part in a School Health Education Unit survey last summer, which highlighted that 78 per cent of pupils (aged 10-11) across Luton worry quite a lot or a lot.

The school would like to say thank you to Tara Lewis, school health education specialist at Luton Borough Council , for her training.