Cardiff Sixth Form College was awarded last night at the inaugural WISC (Welsh Independent Schools Council) awards recognising our college for our Wellbeing Initiative.
On winning our Principal, Gareth Collier said: “I am delighted to have received the ‘Wellbeing Initiative’ award on behalf of CSFC at the WISC annual conference. The really innovative and relevant approach to developing a pastoral management programme for students that is CREATE, is pioneered by Lisa Morton, Head of Pastoral. It helps to provide a balanced programme of activities supporting students’ academic, physical, social, career and wellbeing pathways, preparing them to face positive futures.”
More on CREATE:
The CREATE Portfolio was developed to enhance and promote a sense of positive mental health and wellbeing throughout Cardiff Sixth Form College, whilst allowing learners to develop their skills and knowledge base in areas outside of their curricular studies. In order to develop a holistic approach to pastoral care in education the CREATE Portfolio has at its core the aim of ‘creating’ learners who, ‘whilst attaining academic excellence are independent, self-sufficient young adults with a genuine care and interest in others in the world’. The portfolio is split into 6 key areas (each mapped to different themes and initiatives) in order to demonstrate to pupils that positive mental health and wellbeing are explicit in all areas of life and not just something unique to a college environment. Increasing a greater awareness of wellbeing and mental health was key when developing the scheme to allow students to not only gain a greater sense of self but also to allow them to develop greater resilience.
CREATE was developed by researching positive psychology models and local and national mental health and wellbeing policies. The portfolio is underpinned by the articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, including guidance derived from Professor Graham Donaldson’s report, ‘Successful Futures’ and Welsh curriculum models. Most students at Cardiff Sixth Form College are International, so global perspectives on wellbeing and mental health were also embedded into the CREATE© portfolio to make the scheme something that was readily relatable to learners. Each area of the portfolio represents a letter of the word CREATE© (Community, Respect, Engage, Active, Thrive and Enrich) and each area has its own theme; for example, university application preparedness, volunteering, staying active etc. Within each of the areas of CREATE© students achieve set key tasks over a two-year period in order to be awarded a Bronze, Silver or Gold award and GCSE students can gain a Bronze and Silver award over the one year CREATE© programme. For students who excel across the initiative, they have the opportunity to be awarded a Platinum Award, gaining a Pastoral Leadership Award or Wellbeing Achievement Award.
The initiative seamlessly maps across other areas of college academic and careers provision, and as a result of this the 6 key areas of the CREATE portfolio were established; Community, Respect, Engage, Active, Thrive and Enrich.
The portfolio has demonstrated a successful increase in wellbeing rates, resilience and confidence amongst the student body especially when transitioning from school to college life, with 91.4% of students citing within Learner Voice that they ‘feel the college is enabling them with life skills that they will be able to utilise in higher education and beyond’. Learner voice surveys have also noted that students feel that they are part of a community and that they enjoy participation in extra-curricular events and activities; highlighting further that the scheme has been successful when supporting the needs of the students at the college.
In addition, when looking at the direct impact on wellbeing, outcomes indicated that 84% of students had seen a positive increase in their wellbeing scores within a two month period.
Categories: News
