Our innovative Wellbeing Wednesday co-curricular project is aimed at improving pupils wellbeing, and giving them a chance to experience a wide range of enriching activities which sometimes get squeezed out of our busy school timetables and home lifestyles!

Children’s mental health, resilience and social skills are more important than ever in our changing modern world. Our Wellbeing Wednesdays are all about developing the whole child, helping them to find a passion and feel good about themselves.

Children work in groups across the whole school to join in with different fun clubs each Wednesday afternoon. Working in mixed age groups, allows children to form caring bonds to across the school, making connections and allowing older children to take responsibility and nurture our youngest pupils.

The exciting activities are co-curricular: they complement add onto our core curriculum in school, but unlike an ‘extra-curricular’ activity, these clubs are for everyone and are free to parents! Because the clubs happen during the school day, we can remove some of the barriers to participation for disadvantaged children and those with SEND. Our clubs support the development of the skills and experiences which we think all children should be entitled to before they leave their infant school years

Clubs cover wellbeing skills such as mindfulness, relaxing pursuits, active sessions such as Fun PE and forest school, learning something new, and the fun bits of the curriculum that everyone wishes they could spend more time on, such as cookery and music.

They are provided by a mixture of outside experts, “Junior Jam”, and  our fantastic teaching assistants,  Sports Coaches Coach Chris and Miss Gracie, and Forest School Leader, Mrs Browne. Each year, we ask the children to review the clubs at the end of the year, so we can make sure we kept the favourites and use some new ideas that they have suggested too.

The timetable shows which two clubs each child’s group will be doing each week. Children should know which animal group they are in, but if families are unsure, the office can let you know.

Our Clubs This Year:

This is a brief summary of the 2026/27 clubs and what the children will experience:

Nature Explorers (Forest School) – led by Mrs Browne who is a level 3 forest school practitioner. The children are shown practical natural activities including seasonal natural crafts such as flower stamping and twig wrapping; and closely supervised outdoor skills such as whittling (with carrots), sawing ‘leaf cookies’, fire-lighting with flints.  They can choose to have a go at the activities or to explore the area and climb, swing, make mud pies or look for minibeasts etc.

Keep the Beat (Instruments) – led by a specialist teacher from Junior Jam.  Children enjoy using an instruments to practice skills such as rhythm, pitch, tempo and beat.  They enjoy playing instruments together. Thorough the year, the club use different instruments, for example African drums, ukuleles, boom whackers, electronic drums and keyboards.

Creative Craft – led by Mrs Hankin and Mrs Egginton – children enjoy a range of art and craft projects using different techniques and linked to the time of year, e.g. collage, bubble painting, yarn craft etc.  Stopping to notice details and express themselves with art and craft helps wellbeing.

Garage Band (iPads) – led by a specialist teacher from Junior Jam. Children are shown how to use an educational app to make music.  Children use music to express their feelings, work with a partner and practice paying attention and listening carefully to the music they make. These skills help promote wellbeing.

Be Active Club – led by Coach Chris, our specialist sports coach. Children use the climbing equipment and bikes on the playground and  enjoy using the apparatus and other favourite PE activities in the hall. Being active contributes to both mental and physical wellbeing and is lots of fun!

Resilience Club – led by Mrs May and Mrs Smart. Children enjoy fun activities such as challenges, role play, small world play and crafts.  They learn techniques to keep persisting when things are difficult and celebrate trying again.  Resilience or "grit" is recognised as a key factor in our wellbeing and in future success.

Fantastic Friends – led by Ms Davies and Mrs Wells.  Through circle time, children find out and practice how to be a good friend to each other.  They play games together and staff celebrate and narrate their positive play behaviours.  Children also learn about caring for animals, including our school chickens.  If they would like to, they can feed, hold or just watch Dolly, Bob, Susan and Nugget. 

Express Yourself Club – led by sports coach Miss Gracie. Children engage in drama warm-ups, and learn songs and dances from the theatre.  Moving their bodies, acting out feelings and performing together help build emotional literacy skills and self-confidence.

Eat Well Club – – led by Mrs Westwood and Mrs E. Smith. Children practice cookery skills such as chopping, peeling, mixing, melting, sprinkling. They make a simple healthy food product each week, with a sweet treat in the final session. The children can also enjoy playing with the role play and small world toys, including the pretend play house in the Rainbow Room. Learning how to prepare food builds confidence, and finding out about simple healthy snacks helps them know how to keep their bodies healthy.

Mindful Moments – led by Mrs Barton and Mr Heslop – children practice relaxation skills and take time to pause and take notice.  They work together to help nurture and care for our school by planting and caring for our gardening beds and planters, using all of their senses to appreciate nature.

Our Wellbeing Wednesday Jingle