This week, Britannica International School Shanghai launches Wellbeing Week — five days dedicated to helping every student and member of staff understand, protect and strengthen their own wellbeing.
Each day carries its own theme, and we opened with Monday: Reset — Mental Wellbeing & Stress. We chose to start here deliberately: before students can move, connect, thrive or celebrate, they first need the tools to recognise when they're feeling overwhelmed, and the confidence to do something about it.
In Primary
Our younger students spent the day on Feeling Good and Staying Calm — learning, in simple, age-appropriate ways, to notice when they're starting to feel stressed, and to build a toolkit of strategies to help both themselves and their friends. For our youngest learners, this is often their very first introduction to naming an emotion before it becomes a big feeling, and it's a skill that sets the tone for the rest of the week: it's okay to feel stressed, and there's always something we can do about it. Teachers reported children confidently using new vocabulary to describe how they were feeling, and — just as importantly — spotting when a friend needed a bit of support.
In Secondary
Today, students across the secondary school took part in:
- The 3-Minute Stress Challenge (KS3): Students spent three minutes writing down everything taking up space in their heads — homework, exams, friendships, worries — then sorted it into what they can control, what they can influence, and what they need to let go of, before choosing one small, doable action to take today. The value here is practical: it teaches students a repeatable technique for turning a vague sense of overwhelm into something manageable.
- Phone vs Brain Experiment (KS4): A short concentration challenge completed first with phones visible, then with phones away. Students compared their own results and discussed what they noticed — giving them first-hand evidence, rather than just being told, about how a nearby phone affects focus.
- Would You Rather: Wellbeing Edition (KS5): Students debated genuine dilemmas about success, happiness and balance, and had to justify their choices. This activity was chosen to get older students talking openly about values and trade-offs — the kind of conversation that rarely happens in a normal lesson.
The day also marked the start of our Tree Installation in the school foyer, where every student and member of staff — from our youngest in Pre-Nursery to our oldest in Year 13 — receives a leaf and answers one simple question: What helps you feel happy? It will grow, leaf by leaf, throughout the week — a genuine reflection of what our whole community values.
A real highlight from today: staff across both Primary and Secondary reported some of the most honest, thoughtful conversations of the term, with children and young people alike willing to name their stresses openly and support one another in finding ways through them. That openness is exactly what this week is designed to build.
Follow along all week as we move from Reset to Move, Connect, Thrive, and finally Enjoy.
