What did our boys get up to during Wellbeing Week?

Did you know that plant-based foods can contain more protein than meat? That ‘spirulina’ contains 57g of protein per 100g? Or that Lewis Hamilton was following this advice and ditching meat for lentils at the age of 10? Did you know bees perform a waggle dance to provide field directions to their workers? Or that Prep School boys perform all sorts of dances in the Silent Disco?

This week, Habs enjoyed promoting our Wellbeing in a great number of ways.

A few of these events included:

• Chef Marco, ‘ in theatre’, in The Bates
• HabsDash#12 LIVE WELL, with a record 179 participants
• Graham Ogden, ex-head chef of Formula 1 Racing, cooking a dish and recounting stories to the 6th Form and Prep School.
• Olivia Pratt, Senior Nutritionist at Chartwells addressing the HM Assembly on Health and the Pre-Prep on ‘Hungry Caterpillar’
• Mr Rash ‘The Beekeeper’ Patel talking to Junior Assembly about beekeeping.
• Prep Silent Disco; Yoga; Brain teasers; The Smoothie Bike Challenge; talks and societies; Mufti Day; Staff Valentine’s Day Quiz.

Our Head of PSHCEE, Mr. Bass, comments:

‘It’s great to have the pupils and staff celebrate their health and happiness , whether in active play or being engaged in a choice of ideas, events or charity support. A busy week!’

The Prep School were also busy, holding a fantastic well-being week and enjoying lots of excellent activities. Many boys have enjoyed taking part in the morning aerobic sessions run by the staff. One highlight was definitely Wednesday afternoon, where every boy took part in Yoga, Zentangles, Outdoor Games and most popular of all – a Silent Disco!

For more, we caught up with three Habs boys to talk about their roles in Wellbeing week.

Zain

Graham Ogden – the Head of Chartwells Catering Team – has just concluded a talk on the importance of plant-based nutrition. Having worked for F1 and catered for Lewis Hamilton, he has more than a few things to say about the myths of protein. The boys are fuelled on porridge as he chats.

As he cooks a pasta dish containing a variety of vegetables, one of the Sixth Form remains unconvinced. So much so, that Zain decides to volunteer first the Head of Sixth Form – and then himself – to taste the dish. After a moment, Zain pronounces his verdict on the pasta: excellent!

As Zain points out,

‘I really learnt there’s a lot of better sources for protein than meat. Beef only has 18g of protein, whilst sprirulana has way more. The dish was much better than I thought it would be! I was skeptical at first because it only took him three minutes to make, but it was really good!’

Leaving Zain to his breakfast, we met with Shyan to further discuss the importance of exercise as part of a balanced lifestyle.

Shyan

HabsDash is our weekly running competition organised by Mr. Broadwidth, complete with a 3k circuit of the school and a range of stickers for finishing challenges. This week, the theme was LIVE WELL, raising awareness of the importance of exercise for our general well-being.

Shyan has been competing to raise points for the house, to help his cross-country – as well as to earn the live well sticker. Of the HabsDash event, Shyan says:

‘I got involved to improve my cross-country, but also because my friends were involved too. They did it one week – really enjoyed it – and so I got involved too. I enjoyed the challenge: it’s endurance, you have to push and force yourself to keep going. At the end, I felt relief, but also achievement – you feel like you’ve completed something big.’

Leaving Shyan to gather his breathe and recover, we finished in the Medburne Centre to see a crowd of students gathered around a Lower Sixth student.

Enuka

Enuka is powering his way through a challenge on an exercise bike. However, unlike Shyan, this challenge has nothing to do with best times and segment records. Instead, his efforts are powering a blender fixed to the bike, grinding up fruit for a smoothie! Enuka comments:

‘The exercise bike was a lot of fun – the smoothie was really refreshing! With the intensity of hockey we play, a good repair of muscles is really important. Diet can help support you, and rather than eating meat, I’m trying more plant-based foods which are healthy. I even got some Edamame beans from Waitrose!’

As the smoothie is poured, Enuka collects his glass and runs off to his Wednesday sport session. So it’s left to the remaining boys to fight for the leftovers!

Live Well

Prep

The Prep School have had a fantastic well-being week and have enjoyed lots of excellent activities. Many boys have enjoyed taking part in the morning aerobic sessions run by the staff.

Our highlight though was definitely Wednesday afternoon where every boy took part in Yoga, Zentangles, Outdoor Games and most popular of all, a Silent Disco.

One boy said “I have been to a few silent discos before, but this was definitely the best as I was able to experience it with all of my friends”

Another boy added “I have never experienced this before but I absolutely loved it!”

Wellbeing Week

What all these events demonstrate is the importance of nutrition and exercise as part of our general well-being. Alongside academics and cross-curricular, it is essential to prepare boys for the future through a holistic education: whether this means cooking pasta, running races or blending smoothies!

We would like to thank all of our guest speakers for a wonderful range of talks and activities, as well as Mr. Bass and Mr. Harrington for organising this week of events. We would also like to thank all of the Senior and Prep Staff involved.