Len Wood holds wellness session

How does nature, movement and connection impact your wellbeing? This was the question posed to Len Wood Middle School students last week by School District No. 83 (North Okanagan-Shuswap) Healthy Schools Co-ordinator Laura Paiement.

To help students think about this, activity stations were set up that students cycled through. “Students were actively engaged in four different stations where they experienced or reflected on their wellbeing and things they can do at home or at school to relive stress and improve how they feel,” said Paiement.

At the “Move” station, students checked in before and after exercise to see how even 10 minutes of movement made them feel.

At the second station, students were asked what are some ways that Len Wood helps them be healthier and what are ideas that staff and students at Len Wood can do to help individuals and the school be a healthier place. The “Sunnies” (what Len Wood currently does) and “wishes” were then placed under one of the four pillars of the Comprehensive School Health framework. 

Students were also asked what their top strategies were for dealing with stress. The top tools were movement and connection (time alone, with friends/family/pets, time outside). Listening to music was also high on the list.  

At the next station, students listened to other teens talk about the benefits of social media, some of the drawbacks, and how social media impacted their connections and relationships. Students then “spun the wheel” to write down their thoughts on the influences of social media. 

At the last station, students discussed how nature makes them feel and activities they love to do outside. Ways to increase time outside was discussed with a strong desire shown by students for more time moving outside for PE and brain breaks and more time learning outside. 

This event was the third and final component of a focus on wellbeing aimed at helping increase student engagement in their learning.

“The idea for the wellness project was born out of a school improvement discussion where our teachers focused on how to get students more engaged in their learning,” explains Principal Denise Moore. With data from a wellness survey and their own observations, the teachers brainstormed why students might not be engaged. They used the data to look at the reasons that might help to explain lower student engagement and what could be done to help.  Our ready to learn focus was born out of this data and discussion.

They decided to do three 30 day challenges and bring in three guest speakers. The first guest speaker was nutritionist Serena Caner who spoke to the students about the importance of eating breakfast and eating local healthy foods. The second was Dr. Sean Larson, who spoke on student anxiety, sleep and being connected to others. This speaker tied into the challenge to students to ensure they are getting enough sleep each night.

The final speaker was SD83 Healthy Schools Laura Paiement, who did the nature, movement, and connection session.

Moore said the challenges are part of the school’s improvement plan. She said staff used strategies from Cale Birk, which among other things, looks at how to increase student engagement in their learning, the “why” behind it, and what can be done at the school level to help address the underlying causes of the lack of engagement.