Around 700 students gathered today to take part in the ‘Big Walk and Talk’ to help promote community well-being.
With a perfect day of sunny weather, schools from all across Barnard Castle came together to walk from the castle to Teesdale school with the help of teachers, and community partners. The rare occasion of bringing different aged children from a variety of different schools together made it a very special event.
The focus of the well-being was split up into five parts: to connect, be active, give, take notice and keep learning and the day saw lots of smiling, laughter, playing and all around happiness.
After one and a half years of planning, Project Manager Sarah Jackson explains: "The point of the walk was to encourage well-being and show everyone they are not alone. We wanted to show they can have social connections who aren’t just family and are able to develop good friendships.”
Mary Robson (arts and health) goes on to say: “Today is all about achieving awareness of mental and physical health that not everyone notices. By pointing children in the right direction and by all talking together and building relationships, we can avoid depression and issues with health."
Mary and Sarah, who organised the event, got all the children involved in making gifts such as posters, banners, flags, bracelets and more.
Debbie McFarlane (Year 9 at Teesdale School) designed a hand symbol for the event where each finger represented each point of the awareness for well-being.
Activities such as games and dancing took place on the castle grounds including: our Year 10 students drumming and a mix of all students and teachers dancing together.
Miss Hollindale, Head of the Art at Teesdale School said "It's really great to see a whole community of different age groups come together and get to know each other. Especially as a lot of the children will be coming to our school next year, it's really good for them to get to know each other better. I also loved the colourful, eye-catching artwork that made the whole day even more exciting!"
by Elionwy Morse, Year 12