• 26
  Apr 2024

• Let’s Shatter the Silence by Ms Lata Uchil

  
  

  Ms Lata Uchil | International School

We at MRV are a team of enthusiastic, dedicated and receptive resource personnel who strive to prioritize the mental wellbeing of the students and staff. Special Educators aid the students who need remedial support. The Counselors cater to the emotional needs of the students of all grades.

Pre pandemic we saw very different behavioral and academic concerns relating to choosing career pathways and academic inconsistencies. During Pandemic we saw an ebb in their concentration and motivation levels. The students found it difficult to cope with the online mode of education. However post pandemic we saw drastic change in the students social, behavioral and academic aspects. The students had difficulty socializing as socialization took a backseat. But now we can say we have achieved our goal by creating mental health awareness by conducting workshops, debates, group discussions and classroom activities for parents, students and staff.

Traditionally at the beginning of every academic year, we have a theme around which our Annual Day and other academic projects are based on. This year we had Nurture Nature as our theme. We integrated the nature nurture theme for our well-being programme as well. Our students engaged in project inclusivity to acknowledge diversity. Students made a model of human terrarium inspired from the idea of terrarium where different plants coexist together. They made miniature models of an inclusive society including people from different walks of life by using legos, puppets as a medium of art.

Also this year as an initiative to destigmatize mental health conditions, we celebrated World Mental Health Day in October. We had a movie trivia where they had to answer questions related to mental health condition, name of the character or the movie. We also had a small skit where the conversation amongst the characters portrayed how acceptance can lead to destigmatization.

We have regular one-on-one sessions for students from our Pre-Primary to A level. In these sessions we make sure to cater to their social, emotional, behavioral and academic concerns.

We have weekly Wellbeing sessions which we conduct across each grade from Pre-primary to A level. These classes are used as simulation sessions to introduce adaptive coping mechanisms and strategies which can be used to navigate overwhelming life situations.

The resource team actively collaborates with the parents to provide feedback to them. We further discuss strategies to help them attain the required goals. Periodic meetings are being held to ascertain and evaluate the goals.

We have segregated the topics according to different age groups.These classes are experiential where-in we use four modes of learning which are visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile. These sessions are curated according to the five components of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) which are Self Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible decision making and core life skills by World Health Organisation (WHO) as a guiding reference to our wellbeing sessions.

We at MRV strive to make sure that mental health concerns of our students are addressed effectively and sensitively.

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.”

~ Carl Rogers