iYarn: Students Check In On Their Wellbeing
Year 8 students recently shared a Mercy Wellbeing lesson with the inspirational Lockie Cooke, a young West Australian who is the founder of iYarn. This online wellbeing program develops self-awareness and encourages participants to take responsibility for their wellbeing through regular check-ins. The program has been rolled out to Years 7 and 8 Homerooms this year as part of the College’s Mental Health Strategy.
iYarn maps how participants feel about a range of factors which protect and enhance mental health, such as: maintaining a healthy body, expressing gratitude, moving beyond our comfort zone, exercise, giving back, school, friends and family, organisation, seeking help, and sleep.
Lockie spoke to the Year 8s about the importance of setting realistic goals to help make improvements with a view to moving into Year 9 in 2022. He guided them through an engaging hands-on lesson where he reinforced other aspects of the Year 8 Mercy Wellbeing Program, such as addressing perfectionism, building resilience, and setting SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-based) goals.
Here’s what two of our Year 8 students thought:
“I learned that taking some time out to reflect is really good for you and your wellbeing. iYarn helps us to do that. iYarn gives us a chance to reflect, something that many of us don’t get a chance to do. Lockie taught us the importance of this and gave us many more tips to help us in the future.” Eva Longstaff
“Having Lockie present to us a project that we have been studying and trying out was a very helpful experience. It gave us the guidance we needed to strive through Year 9 and the challenges we will face in the future. I learnt how to set goals that will benefit me and how I look at everyday life. This experience was very much appreciated and will help me have a good relationship with myself.“ Olivia Creek
- Featured, Learning4Life
Author: Santa Maria College
Santa Maria College is a vibrant girls school with a growing local presence and reputation. Our Mission is to educate young Mercy women who act with courage and compassion to enrich our world. Santa Maria College is located in Attadale in Western Australia, 16 km from the Perth CBD. We offer a Catholic education for girls in Years 5 – 12 and have 1300 students, including 152 boarders.