Positive Perspectives (cont’d)
In the shadows of Covid and amid successive lockdowns, we launched a new pastoral curriculum – an approach to address the emotional fragility of pupils arriving back at school after such an unsettling period. Fast forward to 2026, and our bespoke Positive Perspectives programme is now embedded at South Hampstead.
The mood in the building is light and joyful, and the incidence of mental health struggles is far less than it was during those difficult pandemic years. The work we’ve done in that time, both within the Positive Perspectives curriculum and in our allied initiatives across the community around wellbeing, resilience and self-kindness, has had a lasting impact on the cultural norms of school life. Ask any girl about wellbeing and she will easily regale you with the benefits of the big hitters: sleep, exercise, good eating and nurtured relationships. If probed further, she will speak eloquently about the value of learning from things that don’t go to plan, the risks of perfectionism, and the power of persisting at something that is difficult… The girls aren’t afraid to get help when they need it, and they are each other’s biggest champions. Now, far from this being just an element of the Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education (PSHEE) curriculum, this way of thinking is in the water at South Hampstead; it’s our habit, as a community, and arguably the very bedrock of our girls’ academic success.
For those not as familiar with our Positive Perspectives curriculum, it is a body of work which we teach as part of the PSHEE programme in Years 7, 9 and again in the Sixth Form. The learning is built on the principles of Positive Psychology – a scientifically researched approach to considering the power of human thoughts, feelings and behaviour, with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses. Recent developments in scanning technology have led to a wealth of understanding about the plasticity of our brains and the ability we all have to sculpt our thinking patterns and habits through consciously reinforcing the positive or helpful ways of thinking and minimising the more destructive or unhelpful ways of thinking. Positive Psychology is not about always smiling or always looking ‘on the bright side’; it is about establishing healthy, helpful ways of approaching challenges and setbacks, so that we are strengthening the resilience of our brain and establishing helpful rather than hurtful thinking patterns. We can learn good habits and thinking patterns and, with time and practice, these become more automatic and stand us in good stead for the inevitable bumps that will come our way.
Good habits and thinking patterns stand us in good stead for the inevitable bumps that will come our way.
One of the important aspects of our Positive Perspectives teaching is to help pupils to understand that feeling worried, sad, angry, uncertain or frustrated does not constitute a mental health problem. These are normal emotions in life that are a part of the human condition and part of the journey of life. We don’t seek to minimise the challenges faced by those who are suffering from an acute mental health condition, but we do aim to help the girls not to assume that, if they are feeling any of the emotions we think of as negative, that it automatically means they are ‘unwell’ or can’t cope. We aim to empower them to use strategies to reframe their thinking, with the hope that, with enough practice, they will start to employ the strategies as a habit they return to again and again over their lifetime.
None of this is to minimise the very real challenges that some of our pupils face with their mental health or the very traumatic events that can have a profound, life-long impact. But it is about calibrating these things properly so that the level of response of girls and the adults in their lives can be appropriate to the challenge, so that most of the inevitable steady stream of daily struggles can be dealt with really successfully and empoweringly by the girls themselves.
Last year, we had a pastoral focus on body respect which fuelled some really insightful discussions with the community around the pressures from media, social norms and gender stereotypes that place a disproportionate emphasis on physical appearance. This year, our focus is on self-esteem, with opportunities built into this year’s form-time and assembly calendar to discuss what it means to have healthy self-esteem and how to build it up, particularly if it’s going through a rough patch.
Wellbeing was central to our recent 150th anniversary fundraising campaign and we are thrilled to unveil a transformed roof terrace and outdoor learning space as well as a new on-site fitness studio this term, thanks to the generosity of our community. Our Wellbeing team, led by one of our Deputy Head Girls, has several initiatives planned for this year – from lunchtime walks with friends round Hampstead village and Belsize Park to our new peer mentor-led games rooms, filled with girls playing board games and cards together. These fun and enriching initiatives remind us all of the good habits that serve to keep our bodies and minds as well-equipped as possible. The enthusiasm of the whole community to embrace such activities together is a testament to the commitment of the South Hampstead family to ensuring that everyone is as well-equipped as possible to thrive and enjoy life, now and in the future.
Senior Deputy Head, Ms Brass, heads up the pastoral programme at South Hampstead High School, which aims to equip all our girls to be architects of their own happiness. Read more about our pastoral approach here.