Displaying huge amounts of resilience and self-awareness, students at Oldfield School in Bath have come together with Bath Mind and The Natural Theatre Company to host a ‘Burn & Banish our Worries’ ceremony. Local MP Wera Hobhouse was there to witness the emotional but empowering ceremony as students performed in front of families and friends, and then went on to a ceremonial fire, a nod to the winter solstice, to banish worries collected by students from their year groups.
The event explored dealing with worries, in a performative way, and celebrated the journey the students have been on over the past year with Bath Mind and the Department of Kindness.
The event aimed to recognise the solemnness of worries and give them due respect, while also being fun and silly, encouraging lightness, creativity and playfulness. The school hall had fun fair style stalls (which students designed and created themselves) including ‘whack a worry’, ‘tin can alley monster worries’ and the cabinet of compassion.
The event was created by Oldfield School Wellbeing Ambassadors who have taken part in creative wellbeing sessions and have also created a website: www.room627.com. Room 627 is a project created to help young people navigate the transition of moving from Year 6 to Year 7 with kindness, compassion and creativity.
“I was honoured to attend the lively and uplifting ‘Burn & Banish Our Worries’ ceremony at Oldfield School,” said Wera. “It was wonderful to speak with some of the students and take part in activities that they had arranged. I am keenly aware of the huge toll the pandemic has taken on our collective mental health. Our young people have been particularly impacted and it is vitally important that we support their mental health and wellbeing.
“My warmest thanks to Bath Mind, Oldfield School and the Natural Theatre Company for facilitating this creative, student-led initiative and for their excellent work in our community.”
Bath Mind added, “Oldfield School have been such a joy and pleasure to work with, enabling us to have the freedom to support young people’s ideas to make them happen. Head of Year 7, Miss Abby Davies has been brilliant at saying yes to everything that comes her way, even in these challenging times for schools!
“We have exciting plans moving forward for the room 627 project including further creative wellbeing training in schools, a ‘take over’ of The Egg Theatre across October half term 2022 and a large interactive online event. The project is funded by the #iwill fund and being run by Bath Mind, The Dept of Kindness and Oldfield School. The aim of their work is to inspire more young people to take part in social action.”