Oldfield School in Bath has been working with Present Future Self, a local therapy practice, to help Sixth Formers understand and deal with stress, particularly at this difficult time.
With students not knowing from one week to the next how their hard work will be evaluated and judged, and what this will potentially mean for their future qualifications and job prospects, Oldfield teamed up with Barry to deliver a series of online workshops to Year 12 and 13. Barry helped the students understand how stress works and its effects on the body, before guiding them through a selection of exercises to combat stress.
Oldfield is also offering Sixth Formers a subscription to the Bath-based company Meditation Rocks, which has a huge catalogue of recorded sessions and weekly live sessions to help students through this stressful time. These workshops were being offered before lockdown to help deal with exam stress and it was felt this would be an excellent time to continue them online.
Mr Nash, Head of Sixth Form, said “We are pleased to be able to support our students in this extra-curricular activity at what is a very uncertain time for many of them. The response from students has been very positive and I’m glad to say that we have had good feedback from parents and students on the workshop.”
One of the students added “The talk by Barry Bray was really interesting, to hear about the chemical parts of mental health, and he was a really good speaker. Also the meditation evening sessions were good – she had really interesting methods and it is easier to wind down at that time. I would definitely go again.”