June Glimmers: New Ways for Families to Connect
Time is truly flying by. Whether it's the long Summer days or the thoughts of my eldest starting secondary school soon, it all feels like a bit of a blur.
But when I pause to soak up everything that's happened this past month I realise how truly wonderful it has been.
Falling in Love with Canals
It's official: I love canals! This month, I've had the pleasure of visiting several and it's been fantastic getting some of our "In the Wild" leaders out on the water, visiting sites in London and Gloucester, as part of our work to create well-being routes for the Canal & River Trust.
Say hi to Luke - based in Bristol he is one of Our In the Wild Leaders and Kids Confidence Coaches.
He's absolutely loved exploring the waterways in Gloucester, and it's fantastic to offer these unique experiences to our coaches.
Beyond developing new well-being routes, we're excited to announce some upcoming FREE family well-being sessions too:
Birmingham City Centre: Join us on Saturday, July 12th at Cambrian Wharf.
Foxton Locks: Come along on Sunday, July 19th at Foxton Locks Visitor Centre.
The best part? These are all funded by Sport England, making them completely FREE! You can book your spot or register your interest for future events and we will let you know as soon as the booking form is live.
Want to discover why water makes us feel so good and how to embrace "blue health" in your family's life? You can read more in our recent post:
Project Playground
Laura was at a secondary school last week and saw all the Year 6s on a transition day, happily playing on the playground. This might seem normal, but often, that playful buzz is missing in secondary school settings. And that's exactly what we're on a mission to change!
We're currently working with another secondary school in Solihull to help them bring play back to the playground. If you'd like to support or get involved in this exciting project, please reach out to us.
Supporting Kids with the Secondary School Transition
Over the past three weeks, we had the fantastic opportunity to coach 60 Year 6 kids in nature, helping them build the confidence they need for secondary school. And guess what? Spending time outdoors, just playing, really helped them relax. The feedback showed how much they loved that part of our sessions. So over the Summer holidays we have the perfect opportunity to connect our kids with nature, it’s a brilliant and free way to help them feel calm and confident, simply by being in the moment.
"Children love being outside and given a bit of freedom, letting them go off into the wild area with fewer limitations I think they enjoy it. They really enjoy creating and crafting something so the house/den building was great." – Mr. Hodgson, Year 6 Teacher
Kids reporting feeling anxious starting secondary dropped from 28% top 6%, after the sessions – you can find more support for those transitioning to secondary school in our dedicated blog post here:
We've also loved working with Alderbrook School this month, doing a child-led podcast about school transition – they asked some great questions, we will share this on Facebook when it goes live. I loved the final question when they asked us what our super power was - can you guess what Laura and I said?
Connecting Even More Kids to Nature
It's amazing to see our 'In the Wild' program adapt in so many ways! Coach Rosie is fully booked down in Hampshire with her latest 'In the Wild' family sessions and Laura and I were also back at Alderbrook School in Solihull running sessions for Year 7 and 8 students with SEN. It's always incredible how getting kids hands in the mud helps kids to almost immediately access calm and I love catching up with Mary on some amazing future plans with have to support Alderbrook with there Cradle to Career approach (watch this space).
Kids Coaching: Help for Mental Health
Now more than ever, kids need support with their mental health, we're so grateful to all the parents who continue to reach out for help and our network of amazing kids coaches who provide support. Laura continues her amazing work coaching kids 1-2-1 at West Coventry Academy and from her home studio.
Have you ever considered coaching kids and would you like to work with us? We have some incredibly exciting news.
We're partnering with an NLP training company to offer a new course where you will be trained both as an NLP Practitioner (teaching you the power of words and much more) and then Happy Confident Kids coach; meaning we can train coaches in a faster and more cost-effective way, so our tools can reach even more young people.
Register your interest here with me on email.
Want to work with us, or have a question you'd like support with? Please comment below – we'd love to help.