Health and Well Being

It is widely recognised that a child’s emotional health and wellbeing influences their cognitive development and learning, as well as their physical and social health and their mental wellbeing in adulthood.

At Cherry Oak we encourage many opportunities to explore our emotional health and well being. 

Here are some some of the examples; 

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Relaxation sessions

What are the Benefits of Relaxation?

• Slowing the heart rate

• Reducing the activity of stress hormones

• Slowing your breathing rate

• Helping you to naturally breath well by encouraging deeper breathing

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After PE all pupils independently get a mat to stand on and do cool down stretches, then they lie down and relax whilst listening to relaxing music and calming breathing techniques. Allowing the body to cool down and breathing rate to slow down. 

Collective Worship 

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Every day we finish the school day with Collective Worship. During this session all the pupils reflect on their school day. They can discuss how they feel their day has been? What did they enjoy about school today? Is their anything they could do better tomorrow? The pupils discuss their peers behaviours and praise positive behaviours or activity. 

The session ends with a prayer and calming music to relax and calm the body and brain before the school day ends. 

Morning March 

Every day the pupils arrive to school and encouraged to participate in the 'morning march'. Music is played whilst staff encourage all the pupils to march/jog around the playground to music for approx 10 - 15 minutes. 

Many of our pupils are transported to school by bus or transport and this allows them to have a movement break before starting the school day.

Staff Well Being

This year staff have participated in weekly fitness classes. After school nearly 40% of staff have took part in fitness sessions lead by Jo Gavin. The session varied from 45 minutes to an hour sessions of aerobics, dance workouts and Boxercise circuits. 

We also took part in a one off Clubbercise dance session. 

The staff feedback for these sessions were that they were increasing fitness levels, helping to manage weight programmes and helped towards staff moral and team building.   

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Yoga 

Some staff participate in a half an hour morning Yoga session before work. The staff feel the Yoga sessions not only helps them to burn calories and tone muscles, but it's a total mind-body workout that combines strengthening and stretching poses with deep breathing, meditation or relaxation. Which helps their mind set for the day ahead.