5 Ways to Wellbeing
Keep getting your five-a-day!
This September 2026, we will be continuing to actively raise awareness and focus on the Mental Health and well-being of all our pupils in and around school. It is really important to find, and practice, positive ways of thinking and there are some simple things that we can all do that can help boost moods and keep us happy!
The Five Westcroft Ways to Well being based on a termly theme, which has seen a focus in classrooms and all-around school. For our final term, we will be celebrating our successes of The 5 Westcroft Ways to Well being.
According to research there are 5 things that can really boost our mental well-being; connect, be active, take notice, keep learning and give. These are explained in a little more detail below.
- Give / Kindness – Looking outward as well as inward
- Connect – Connecting with others
- Be active – Doing something active
- Take notice – Taking notice of the world around you
- Keep learning – Learning new things each action can be undertaken individually or collectively
- Celebrating our success – Looking at all the wonderful things we have done or put in place
Here are some examples that can help boost the mood and well-being of our pupils and staff:
Give / Kindness
- smile and say thank you
- make a homemade present or card for no reason
- hold a door open for someone
- share with others
- help around the class / school
- listen to someone else and how they are feeling
- Weekly thank you notes to pupils and teachers
Connect
- talk to your friends and family
- help a friend
- eat food with your class
- make a new friend
- bake some cakes and share them
- ‘Be Nice to someone New’ campaign to promote connecting
- ‘Being in someone else’s shoes project’: helping students to understand and relate to differences
- Empathy project: encouraging students to connect more with other pupils
- ‘Five minute Friendship’ – like speed dating, students are encouraged to talk to other children
- Have a Buddy Stop / Playground Buddies / Playground Pals
- Have a reading area
- Implement a ‘Worry Box’ or ‘feelings box’ system in each classroom which you can go through on a daily / weekly basis
Be active
- dance to your favourite song
- hula hoop
- join a spacetime program
- play a game in the playground
- walk around school
- help in the school garden / forest
- run a race with friends
- make up your own sport
- Happiness walks
- Have yoga sessions (Cosmic Kids) during school time
Take notice
- look what you can see out of your window and how it changes
- paint or draw a picture of what you’ve seen today
- think about how you are feeling today
- listen to the sounds of nature like the wind and rain
- notice how your friends or family are feeling today
- Put a range of prompt questions up around school to encourage children and adults to take notice of others’ emotions such as: can you find someone who needs a helping hand today?
- Run a ‘Mindfulness Club’ where pupils can spend some quiet time colouring, listening to music and making posters to display on the Well-being Board
- Meditation
- Mindful colouring in tutor time
- Play relaxing music during the day
Keep learning
- learn a new word each day
- try out a musical instrument (when safe to do so)
- do a word search
- try a new food
- learn to cook a new recipe
- study an animal or bug
- visit a new place
- write a story or song
- Have a music day where teachers and students who can play an instrument offer to help others try out new instruments (when able to do so)
- Encourage pupils to learn a new skill in their own time and to send in photos of them doing so
- Learn new words that relate to wellbeing
- Keep Learning – teacher reward and acknowledge when students are using our 5 Ways to Well-being