PDHPE

Jonas Stoebe PDHPE Teacher

Swimming Carnival 2020

Fostering Wellbeing at Glenaeon

We all felt the separation and isolation which led to very unhealthy decline in real face-to-face communication between students and their peers as well as between students and their teachers both vital for learning! Students at Glenaeon, as elsewhere, were not on campus at the end of Term 1 and the beginning of Term 2, learning remotely from home.

Although most classes were held via Zoom and students were connected to some degree, many felt a sense of loneliness. The school as a place of communication, learning, interaction and socialising did not exist anymore in the form we all knew it.

Among some other measures the school undertook to support the students and families, we also thought about ways to invigorate students more directly and connect them to the school each morning while also engaging them physically and actively.

We came up with a real-time Morning Wellbeing Session of 10 minutes, followed by a eurythmic interpretation of the students’ morning verse.

In our wonderful outdoor amphitheatre, with nature as a backdrop, each morning brought a different movement aspect to all the students via video link. One day it was strengthening exercises, one morning it was yoga; another morning it was balances; while the next day it was stretches or a cardio workout.

The morning verse was brought to the students through eurythmy teacher Liz’s fine eurythmic movements, interpreting the text through gestures and accompanied by the words read out to the students.

This arrangement lasted for some weeks and provided both a regular and commonly shared morning rhythm and by that some normality as well as connection to the school so many students seemed to miss. They all enjoyed seeing each other on the screen as they logged on ready to exercise.

It was pleasing to hear back from many students when normal school resumed how this mutual and physically active start provided a very good rhythm and was the reason many got out of bed in time. They liked feeling connected, to see other students on the screen and to be invigorated by changing exercises and activities each morning provided by real people they knew! 

Surfing at Long Reef

Basketball in Term 1

The Cove Bubble Soccer incursion at Middle Cove

Freshly resurfaced Basketball courts for Term 4 Volleyball