Health & Wellbeing in Integrated Learning Communities

Have you ever thought what it is really like to leave the world of a residential care home, to be thrust into the world?

I was lucky enough to see the first showing of the National Theatre of Scotland’s newest offering and I can assure you it didn’t disappoint. It featured some of the newest crop of emerging young actors who displayed nothing but first class acting skills. The set, the music and the content was by far the most incredible play I’ve seen this year.

If you have ever seen ‘Blackwatch’, you’ll know the incredible stories the NTS produces. This play had all the same drama and ‘knot in the throat’ style scenes, the incredible dance moves. It was all the more real for me working in education and having worked in residential units in the 90’s.

The story is set around a group of care leavers and their experiences moving into a ‘independent living’ flat. I must say it was so carefully scripted with a moral tale that left a desire to make every peice of work you are involved in more inclusive. Without giving you a ’spoiler’ all I can say is that really this play should be seen by everyone working with young people as a form of CPD.

A few pointers for you..

• Do you consider how every aspect of your teaching affects those in authority care?
• How can you support young people better in their transition?
• We are all ‘corporate parents’ now matter what service you work in.
• How are ‘our’ kids doing? Something we never really say once they have left authority care. But who does ask?

The play is now touring across Scotland, check out their website for more details. I cannot recommend this play to you highly enough.

Growing up as a child of the seventies, I have to admit I have a few early memories that probably age me somewhat. I recall at at early age being drawn to one great read, more commonly found at my Nans house but the other place was at the doctors surgery waiting room table.

The ‘Reader’s Digest’ had two great sections, probably the only ones digestable by a 10 year old. One was ‘It pays to enrich your word power’ and the other was ‘Laughter is the best medicine!’

‘It pays to enrich your word power’ was a quiz testing you on different meanings of words. I thought about how language has evolved when I came across the great website Urban Dictionary a couple of weeks ago. This is a great resource bringing new words and phrases to life. It also has a handy ‘word of the day’ (warning  – some can be a bit rude) RSS feed and can email you a new word everyday, how fantastic! I must admit I really enjoy opening my inbox everyday and am eager to see a new word for the day. Here’s my favourite 3 new words sent to me over the last couple of weeks.

‘moneymoon’
The time after your purchase of a good or service and before ‘buyer’s remorse’ happens.
The moneymoon is over, I realize now that buying that boat was a waste of money.

’slacktivism’

The act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem.

Signing an email petition to stop rampant crime is slacktivism. Want to really make your community safer? Get off your ass and start a neighborhood watch!

And finally..

‘twitterpated’

1)to be completely enamored with someone/something.
2) the flighty exciting feeling you get when you think about/see the object of your affection.
3) romantically excited (i.e.: aroused)
4) the ever increasing acceleration of heartbeat and body temperature as a result of being engulfed amidst the exhilaration and joy of being/having a romantic entity in someone’s life.

When he smiled at her, the rush of warm, fuzzy, excited sensations that filled her made her realize she was completely twitterpated with this man.

This last one brings a new sense of meaning to ‘Twitter’! Moneymoon, just reminds me so much of the In The Wild event at SLF last year when Carol Craig talked about what truly makes us happy..short term retail therapy isn’t it..it’s the wider sense of belonging to something bigger that makes us have a sense of wellbeing. And, Slactivism, I’m sure we all know someone guilty of that!

The second part of this post is dedicated to laughter the best medicine, I was at a great networking event in Argyll and Bute last week, celebrating the work of schools in the area dedicated to putting health and the heart of learning, the key outcome amongst all the others was to ‘have fun’. There was plenty of laughs all round.

Here’s a little something I’ve found on the internet to remind you how important it is to have a laugh along the way. Enjoy!

Pic – Coulhill Primary School, Healthy Highland Week 2007