Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

SCHOOL LIFE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WELLNESS

success and the achievement of goals related to education, career and family. My guess is that most of us think about a mix of all these things when we consider how important the pursuit and practice of wellness is in our lives. “The Student Support Team: A Team Dedicated to Student Wellness.” (Torch, Fall 2017) As Ms. Martin suggests, it is of paramount importance that students become aware of the factors that contribute to wellness and that Havergal provide them with tools to monitor their well-being. If they develop the confidence so neatly defined by Elizabeth Harkness in the March 2016 BTI , they will be better able to make a difference for good in the world: “Self-confidence is about trusting yourself and realizing that you are worth it. Thrusting your abilities and your judgements are the roots of self-confidence, but these are not easy feats. How do we get there?... Now, look inside yourself and find your drive, your passion, your fears. Embrace them. Find what makes you happy, or what makes your blood boil. Use this to fuel yourself. But if you can’t find your drive, create it. You have the power to define yourself, so why not use it?”

The Wellness Centre

For many years, up to and even after the centennial year, the sanctuary for ill and injured students was called the Infirmary. With the change of name came an explicit statement of the school’s perspective. In the previously referenced article “Wellness and Education,” Shelley Frank, Director of Residence and the Wellness Centre, explained the centre’s philosophy: “Wellness is an approach to life. We look at the student as a whole person, taking into account her emotional, intellectual and physical needs.”

The Student Support Team

This integrated approach to wellness reflected the growing appreciation at Havergal of the very complex factors that contribute to students’ physical and emotional health. To that end, the school established a “wrap-around” team in 2015 responsible for creating, implementing and evaluating individualized plans for students in need of special attention. The Student Support Team draws on the school’s impressive human resources: its nurses, Middle and Upper School guidance counsellors, Junior and Upper School learning support specialists, health and physical education teachers, nutrition and food services experts, the school social worker, school chaplains, administrators and the Grade 12 Wellness Prefect. Each participant brings special insights into the concerns about individual students and the school as a whole. Wellness means different things to each of us, as Gillian Martin, head of Senior School, so keenly observed: Wellness is defined differently by each one of us. For some, the pursuit of wellness involves a focus on physical activity and health. For others, it is about finding balance, living in the moment and practising gratitude. Still others equate wellness and, in fact, happiness, with

Graphic from the Student Support Team poster.

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