Page 10 - Warwickian Lent 2021

Charity & community
Wear Purple on 26 March ⏐
National Epilepsy Awareness Day
On the last Friday of term boys showed their support for National Epilepsy Awareness Day by wearing something purple and each donating £2.
Purple Day is an international grassroots effort dedicated to increasing awareness about epilepsy worldwide. On 26 March, annually, people in countries around the world are invited to wear purple and host events in support of epilepsy awareness.
Charity
£8,874.00 total raised this
academic year
Virtual travel from Hong Kong to
Beijing
During lockdown, School House (comprising 19 boarders and 6 staff) virtually travelled the distance of 1965km from Hong Kong to Beijing.
They covered the distance through a combination of walking, running, cycling, rowing and playing basketball.
During the weekly Wednesday evening ‘Games’ sessions all boys spent at least an hour working out and covering the virtual ground. Frank Kwok lead the charge running 10km every time.
They reached Beijing in four and a half weeks. A superb effort from all the boys (and staff) in getting over the finishing line!
Miles for Smiles ⏐ Winter Sports House
Competition and Charity Fundraiser
Kissing it Better, a charity that has been long-supported by the Warwick School community, challenged staff and pupils to run/walk or cycle as many miles as they could in one week for the Winter Sports charity fundraiser called Miles for Smiles.
Pupils received 1 house point for every entry and the top 3 miles covered in each year group received 10 points. Congratulations to Brooke who won the event. We are delighted to say that parents, pupils and staff raised £1,215 for the Kissing it Better care home charity. Thank you to the whole school community for all the generous donations and we look forward to continuing to support this worthy cause.
Wellbeing ⏐ ‘The Happiness Hour’
During lockdown on Friday afternoons, pupils were given the opportunity to participate in a short course to explore the theme of happiness examining specifically what it is that makes us happy, and how as individuals we can improve our overall well-being by making simple changes to our behaviour.
‘The Happiness Hour’ was based around a series of podcasts featuring Professor Bruce Hood from the University of Bristol. Each week through listening to and discussing the podcasts we examined different themes looking at questions such as is it possible to be happy all of the time, does having more material wealth mean more happiness and is happiness something that we should leave to chance?
Underlying the course was a core idea: that we can play a very big role in improving our own happiness through intentional actions. Boys discovered the science and psychology behind these ideas and on a practical level put into practise a ‘happiness hack’ each week. These included: random acts of kindness, keeping a gratitude diary, savouring and being present in the moment, reducing our use of social media, decluttering and giving possessions away and contacting old friends who we had lost contact with. Some of these ‘hacks’ were found harder than others but through active participation boys were able to discuss their relative merits and how they improved an overall feeling of well-being.
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