On Wednesday 26th June, Brampton put together a truly amazing day to promote the wellbeing of the lower sixth students.
First, we had a few talks in the morning to talk about the environment. A group of our peers presented how they had successfully developed ways to help local businesses create sustainable solutions. As an added bonus, they even managed to get us 10% off at a variety of local food businesses!
Then a representative from The Warehouse talked to us about their challenges and efforts to be environmentally sustainable as a local non-profit. The Warehouse is next to Brampton and they specialise in a holistic approach to mental and physical wellbeing. We were lucky enough to have a taste of their all-natural smoothies and overnight oats which both received very positive feedback from the students.
Following this, we were incredibly lucky to meet a senior manager of the British Fashion Council. They talked to us about sustainable fashion, the issues with ‘fast fashion’ and their efforts to work with a huge variety of fashion brands (including ASOS, Primark, Next and Chanel) to help make them more eco-friendly and sustainable. What I found particularly interesting was their current goal of ‘circular fashion’, which aims to create a closed loop system to reduce waste and maximise the life cycle of textiles.
We then got to choose two activities from animal petting, pilates, dance, games, football mobility training, art, STEM experiments, floristry and self-defence to do for an hour each.
Self-defence class
We learned the basics of punching and blocking with our trainer Adrian. The session consisted of a step-by-step guide on the basics of boxing and some practise of light sparring. The class was enjoyable and informative, and even boxing beginners were able to spar after this one session.
Football mobility session
We were given walkthrough demonstrations of key exercises by a qualified Chelsea fitness coach. He took us through exercises focused on agility and strength when playing football. Everyone really enjoyed the session!
Art
We experimented with water colours, salt and bleach. We learned how to freely express ourselves using colour. It was interesting to see the many different ways you can create art. I particularly enjoyed using watercolours because you have less control over the way it moves so you can create many different pieces of art. Boxercise
During the class we did a cardio style boxing work out. It was very high energy and overall good vibes. The instructor was amazing at keeping us all motivated in the heat. The instructor was kind enough to give us free membership to the workout app for a month, and her playlist!
Floristry workshop
Guided by a professional florist, Sadie, we started with a wet foam block (an oasis) and placed it in a pot to keep the flowers hydrated. The first plant we started with was the foliage, then we added some filler flowers. For this we had an option of lilac, dark purple, and white flowers. We then picked our focal flowers, and once again we were able to pick between pinks, whites, and purples to create our own flower arrangement. We were taught some intricacies of floristry such as there should always be an odd number of focal flowers around the edge. It was a delightful activity, and, having never done floristry before, I was surprised by just how relaxing it was. It was such a good creative outlet and I came out wanting to continue floristry as a hobby.
Animal petting
‘All about Anna’s animals’ brought in a vartiety animals for us to stroke and feed. There were turtles, bunnies, hedgehogs, Guinea pigs, and a (very flexible) ferret! Being around animals has been shown to reduce stress and increase mental wellbeing so it was the perfect activity to do during this wellbeing day. Everyone was grinning ear-to-ear throughout; I could feel the joy, excitement, and relaxation of everyone in the room.
We finished the day with an informative and engaging sexual health talk with a professional from the organization, Brook.
I felt that this day summed up the year at Brampton brilliantly. We have had a particular focus as a college this year on environmental sustainability, and mental health and wellbeing – including talks on climate change and bake sales raising money for YoungMinds and awareness for mental health. Wellbeing day brought these themes all together, creating a really informative, inspiring and relaxing day which was a whole lot of fun!
This was Brampton’s first Wellbeing day, and safe to say it was a huge success. We feel that it was an incredible opportunity, and we are so grateful to the College, in particular to the teachers Mary and Lindsay for organizing a truly memorable day.
By students, Sophie Lunzer, Ava Grossman, Dhruti Shah, Zahra Ahmad, Ali Karimbhai
