In this week’s WimTeach Laura Murphy and Annabel Smith explore the concept of Strong Body/Strong Mind in their subjects.
Strong Body Strong Mind refers to, as quoted by Mr Turner, ‘challenging the minds, nourishing the bodies, and feeding the souls’ of our community, particularly the students. The school has made this theme pertinent throughout the years as students are guided and provided opportunities to build a mind of happiness, resilience and connectivity with others and themselves, as well as a body that will enable them to take on the challenges, activities and enjoyments of life. As established in the month-long programme in January 2023, the school provides a multitude of opportunities for students to grow their bodies’ physical capabilities, understand the benefits of positive psychology and nurture their overall wellbeing. However, it is not only within extracurriculars that students are learning and developing their mindfulness and skills but also within academic curricula. This post will look at how Biology and Physical Education encompass aspects of the theme, helping students learn how to build a Strong Body Strong Mind from the ground up.
Strong Body Strong Mind is integral throughout Biology across all years. In KS3, we introduce them to the digestive system and look at how all food groups are important to help their bodies grow and function. This could be from carbohydrates providing ‘brain power’ energy for lessons or to take part in their many extracurricular activities to calcium helping their bones and muscle function, producing a ‘strong body’. In KS4 we continue with this theme, but with students covering a range of topics from their GCSE specification. For example, we delve into the world of hormones, which are vital for both a ‘strong body and a strong mind’. This is a key topic in Year 10 where students learn how hormones work through specific examples. This also provides them with the opportunity to undertake a research project; looking into the hormones that affect their mental and emotional wellbeing and how they can manipulate these to increase their overall wellbeing. For example, one group of students researched and presented on:
How serotonin influences learning and happiness, whilst a lack of serotonin may play a part in experiencing anxiety. They spoke about how, particularly at exam periods, it is important to stimulate the release of serotonin to aid mindfulness. Ways they suggested through their research included spending time in the sun (serotonin tends to be lower after winter and higher in summer and autumn) and eating food that naturally contains tryptophan, the amino acid from which serotonin is made, such as eggs, salmon, tofu and pineapple, which are beneficial within your diet for a strong mind.
We are very excited to welcome the new GCSE specification which looks into the different areas of the brain such as the frontal cortex, responsible for emotions and learning, and linking this to positive psychology complementing GROW and mindfulness in the wider school.
Whilst Biology looks at the internal body through one lens, Physical Education also lends itself to the notion of Strong Body, established both in the curriculum and co-curricular teaching that is done throughout all ages and stages of the school. The undertaking of physical activity, whether it be a Year 7 Games lesson or a Friday afternoon Swim Squad session, all links to positive related health outcomes, such as the decline of chronic diseases and improving lifespan. However, we now look towards the interconnectivity between the body and the mind, the Strong Mind part of the initiative, has never been more relevant or more needed in both the education of our pupils but imbedded as part of the Physical Education curriculum. In the past 30 years, studies have shown a decline in the combined aspects of physical and cognitive health in children from industrialised nations. The advantages of a Strong Body/Strong Mind are shown in more recent studies which have gone beyond the suggestion that time spent in physical activity does not come at a cost to academic goal but suggests in growing evidence that physical active children outperform their less active peers in the classroom. As well as taking part in higher levels of physical activity, it can lower the levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety. As a department, we encourage the challenge sport brings to help shape the young people of our school with hopes that this will lead to pupils that accept competition in any form, and learn that losing is a part of life that helps us grow.
In GCSE PE, we study what a healthy body needs in terms of the right nutrition to fuel itself as well as the different body types and how they each lend itself to certain sports and activities. This helps pupils assess how to maintain a healthy lifestyle from both a physical, mental and social viewpoint. As previously mentioned, this is echoed in Biology from KS3 to KS5. However, instead of looking at a particular activity, we look at how each group is vital for cell function, e.g. proteins for enzymes, and how this overall affects their physical and mental wellbeing. In the PE curriculum pupils from Y7 learn the importance of a warmup, knowing concepts that can help prevent injury as well as getting focused in a game situation. Whilst in Year 13, students will look in depth at how muscles function, once again linking back to the importance of different food groups, particularly calcium. They can then go onto further think about how they can use this knowledge to increase their strong body. GCSE PE students also learn concepts in Sports Psychology such as mental rehearsal and the use of imagery to remain calm and focused, techniques that can be carried into different scenarios such as exam technique and interview preparation. They can link this to thinking about what parts of the brain they are using, developing their learning from their Biology lessons. Furthermore, this is important across all academics and extracurriculars, helping them to train their brain in the best way building a strong mind.
Should Biology and Physical Education be more connected in linking common themes like our Strong Body/Strong Mind initiative? On one hand both subjects evaluate the human body’s strengths and weaknesses, assessing the body as a whole holistic being, working together to create a common goal. Whether that be the hormones within the body or coordinating a gymnastic tumbling routine to perfection. On the other hand, both subjects’ approaches are very different stemming from either scientific or kinesthetic concepts. There are arguments for both pathways. However, the overarching idea remains the same: learning about and implementing a strong body and strong mind strategy into the curriculum is vital for children’s health and wellbeing, helping our pupils to grow and strive and most importantly become well-rounded and strong adults as leave our community.
References
Booth, F. W., & Lees, S. J. (2006). Physically active subjects should be the control group. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 38, 405-406.
Hillman, C. H. (2014). An introduction to the relation of physical activity to cognitive and brain health, and scholastic achievement. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(4), 1–6. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43773269
Hillman, C. H., Erickson, K. I., & Kramer, A. F. (2008). Be smart, exercise your heart: Exercise effects on brain and cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
McDowell, C.P., MacDonncha, C., and Herring, M.P. (2017). Brief Report: Associations of Physical Activity with Anxiety and Depression Symptoms and Status Among Adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 55, 1–4.