STUDENT WELLBEING
Student Wellbeing at UWC Atlantic
Mental health and wellbeing have been the words on everyone’s lips this year and as a counselling service we knew we had to be prepared to meet the challenge. Fortunately, our strength comes from the fact that we are a fully integrated part of college life and part of several multidisciplinary teams. We all take responsibility for the wellbeing of our students and benefit from good communication between the Safeguarding and Wellbeing Centre, as well academic staff. We also have an absolutely lovely team of student Peer Listeners and Queer Listeners who we train to provide support, mediation and a friendly ear to their fellow students. Our close partnership with the Wellbeing Council (Wellco), which delivers studentled wellbeing initiatives throughout college, is also key. By having these multiple layers of support in place, students are less likely to slip through the cracks or go unnoticed. We sit nestled in The Learning Centre at the heart of the castle - a warm, nurturing space where students come to sit, work and get some support from a variety of professionals. Downstairs sits Maite SandovalInglada who provides English as an Additional Language (EAL) support and Emma Gaze, the coordinator for Additional Learning Needs (ALN). Issues around EAL and ALN will often overlap so having a shared space enables us to work together to support students in a proactive and holistic way. Upstairs is the private oasis of the counselling room which students describe as a retreat away from the bustle of college life, and a space to reflect and process their myriad of experiences at UWC Atlantic. Our counselling service is supported by the Moondance Foundation, a generous college sponsor over many years, and we are eternally grateful to them for their commitment to our work. Having such a discreet, dedicated space normalises students seeking support, and it provides them with a variety of professionals they can access. It is in this space that we deliver the compulsory life skills sessions to all first year students in their first term and where we hold our wellbeing drop-in session on a Thursday evening. Recognising the challenges that students were facing after the pandemic, we wanted to help build a more resilient and emotionally literate community where we could encourage students to stretch their comfort zone as well as recognise when they don’t feel safe. The Protective Behaviours program, funded by a former parent, helped us to achieve this, offering tools and strategies for diffusing conflict, empowering people and preventing harm. We also used the first term to explore in detail the issue of consent. In such a diverse community as ours, the issue of consent can be quite contentious as we all bring with us a different understanding of what a consenting culture looks like. As counsellors we work closely with the safeguarding team to educate students and are quick to respond to any reports from staff and students when support, mediation and guidance is needed.
Thanks to the support of the same parent who funded our Protective Behaviours programme, we were also able to produce a short film that explored consent from the perspective of a young person at an international boarding school. The film was a huge success and we hope to be able to share this as a learning resource with other UWCs and future students so they have an awareness of what a consent culture at UWC looks like before they arrive on campus. Physical wellbeing is as important as emotional wellbeing and as a service we are responsible for providing education around sexual health, drug and alcohol awareness and internet safety. We were able to deliver all of these in-house thanks to the help of our peer listeners and queer listeners who supported sessions delivered by staff and specially trained students. RESOLVEit (a personal safety and self-defence organisation) also delivered an exciting self defence workshop to second years which aimed to prepare them for life beyond UWC Atlantic. We feel proud to provide such an accessible and well used service, which has seen increasing numbers of students access it each year, indicating that stigma around mental health continues to decrease. Next year we look forward to piloting some therapeutic/psychoeducational groups so that we can work effectively with students who may be experiencing common mental health issues. Sincerest thanks to all of you who have supported us this year - it means a lot to us but most importantly to our students. Jess Rees
Jane Wyatt
We began the term with a workshop which encouraged discussion of what consent is and what it is not, and outlined the UK law on consent. In order to address consent from all angles, we also trained a group of second year students to facilitate in-house discussions alongside the workshop. This was really valuable for new students who respond well to peer led discussions in a relaxed setting.
Jess Rees and Jane Wyatt (Student Counsellors) on behalf of the Wellbeing Team.
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