We were delighted with the news that we had triumphed over KCS this week in the Battle of Wimbledon, a challenge to see how far we could all run or cycle in 20 minutes. Not that we’re at all competitive with our comrades up the hill, of course. I was particularly pleased to see that it was Year 7, through the sheer number of their entries and enthusiasm of their participation, who had pushed us to victory, the moral of that particular story being never to underestimate the collective power of 11 year old girls.
And it would seem that the staff are at it, too, as we have now reached as far as Oral, Kazakhstan in our mission to run and cycle from Wimbledon to Tokyo so that we can join the Olympic athletes there, ready for the postponed games. I did point out that we need only run to the East Molesey boathouse to find our very own Olympian, but apparently that was somewhat unambitious in scope…
All of this of course ties in with our current pastoral theme of Strong Body, Strong Mind, as we all continue to face our own personal battles with maintaining our physical and mental well-being during this lockdown period. I know for myself that exercise is often the last thing on the priority list in times such as this, below work, family and sleep (!), even though I know rationally and without a shadow of a doubt that it’s the thing which keeps me firing better in all three of those areas of my life. And getting outside, under the sky, we know to be incredibly good for maintaining perspective, regulating emotion and finding mental space. But for teenagers in particular, the prospect of a daily family walk, or an early run in the freezing drizzle of a February morning, can seem far less appealing than staying in bed and scrolling through tiktok; and there will inevitably be the occasional family battle as you try to lever them out of their room or off the sofa, because you know some fresh air will lift them, even if they don’t know it for themselves.
But I think we have to be careful about our messaging around wellness, and what it means, as this can form another sort of pressure for all of us and perhaps for young people in particular. We can’t get it ‘right’, all of the time, and our needs will differ from person to person and from day to day. This is why we deliberately chose the adjective ‘strong’ for our campaign: one aspect of a strong mind is to recognise how we’re feeling, to respond to it and to pre-empt where possible. But this isn’t always instinctive, and particularly for someone going through adolescence, and they will get it wrong sometimes. My Head Girl team were explaining to me this week that there is sometimes the sense of ‘well-being overload’ for some of our students, who would quite like, just occasionally, not to have to be so unnaturally sensible and structured in their approach to looking after themselves. I do feel for them, worrying if we’re getting this well-being thing right…which is of course somewhat counter-productive!
For the girls, as for all of us, it’s about balance and doing our best, keeping an eye on the less healthy tendencies we know can slip into our out of our routines at times of pressure, but equally giving ourselves license to get it wrong sometimes.