Wellbeing in action

by Amy Kinross, Head of Data, 11+ and Designated Safeguarding Lead

For many, the 11+ has become a symbol of the burial of childhood: the beginning of hothousing and the end of curriculum breadth. The mouse-clicks of silent pupils navigating various online platforms are like church bells, tolling for the demise of joy and creativity in learning. Humanities, sports and the arts are put aside in favour of English, Maths and Reasoning papers. School trips become but a distant memory.

All of this despite our knowledge of a post-Covid decline in children’s wellbeing. NHS England reports that rates of mental health disorders have at last steadied from 2022-23, with 15.7% of our 8-10-year-olds experiencing a mental health disorder, but this comes after a sharp rise that began in 2017 (pre-Covid) and has far-reaching implications for wellbeing in adult life.

All pastoral and safeguarding leads know these stats – and so does the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) – hence the framework’s push for schools to ‘actively promote’ pupil wellbeing. Much is being made of positive wellbeing, and it’s an easy buzzword to add to development plans, but you cannot create it by making resilience a school value or putting up a board display.

We have to show our children what taking care of our wellbeing looks like actively: to model it until they understand, just as we might model column subtraction. Not just through PSHEE, and assemblies, but through the design of our curriculum itself. If we are telling our children to breathe deeply before an 11+ exam while removing their sports fixtures for two terms, that’s a mixed message. This is where curriculum breadth – maintaining humanities, sports, the arts, clubs and trips throughout the 11+ process – is so vitally important and at the centre of our ethos at Kew Green Prep.

When we, as adults, maintain positive wellbeing while performing at our peak, we do not do so in isolation, but with the support of our personal toolkits: family and friends, sleep, exercise, pets and hobbies.

The key to wellbeing is not avoiding challenge, but creating sparks of joy within it, however small. We work hard to give our children regular sparks of joy – a class assembly, a history ghost story, choral poetry, interschool maths quizzes, a football tour, trips to the Globe, building robots in STEM club, and many more – alongside the necessary academic rigour.

As Head of Data, 11+ and DSL, and also leading the school-wide wellbeing strategy, the elements of my role may seem an impossible balancing act, inevitably at odds. But for me, this combination symbolises opportunity, and I am a passionate advocate for these sparks of joy. Staff are endlessly creative, and our data supports our approach: happy children achieve well.

Our value-added is higher than ever at 11+, with academic, music, art, drama, STEM and sports scholarships, and places at highly competitive senior schools. We are proud of our Year 6s, and we are proud that, through our broad 11+ curriculum, we have modelled for them the way to approach any challenge in their adult lives: with hard work, a dream, and a wellbeing toolkit. The church bells are ringing out in joyful celebration, indeed.