A key aspect that has been evolving in our work supporting and enhancing the health and wellbeing of our students is a shift towards a more holistic and individualised approach; we are more intentionally considering the substantial range of factors that can impact and signal the wellbeing status of the children, and seeking to understand and more appropriately target supports and interventions that meet the specific needs of each student. In addition to objective health and other measures such as haemoglobin and weight (healthy weight:height ratio/ normal growth percentile), exam and school-work based results, class attendance, eating habits and life routines etc, we also continue to build on our capture of other relevant information such as in-session observations and recording, comparative observations of change over time etc, as well as qualitative data drawn from student and facilitator self-observations and reflections, experiential sharing’s, self-report questionnaires etc.
| Although lately for most Saturdays school has been scheduled which has impacted our weekend program and the health & wellbeing sessions usually held, I continue to offer whenever possible at other times yoga/ movement/ mobility/ activity-based learning sessions. And for 6th to 8th standard, we continue with the Integrated Learning Program four evenings per week (led by me, and supported by Gothai and Vishnu) and the regular sports training sessions weekday mornings on the sports ground (led by Gothai, with support from our German volunteers Ben, Oskar and local youth), a weekly session (as well as on special occasions) of ATB (Awareness Through the Body) (with leads Pablo, Jagrata or Honor, and usually supported by Savithri). All of these sessions have a key focus of building awareness, presence, strength and stability of the physical body, though they also incorporate broadly holistic, multimodal and multi-layered aspects which offer students opportunities, working individually and in peer cooperation, to explore the various layers of their being – so the physical and bioenergy body and connecting to subtle body of emotional-mind layers. With the aim of increasing awareness and building capacity for self-regulation of sense perceptions of their inner and outer worlds, identifying interconnections and supporting growth in understanding of themselves and others, optimising capacities for reflective responding and decision making, and for flourishing from within a sense of self-efficacy and confidence to be who they are. |
