Testimonials
Case Study - Hilbre High School Academic Year 2007/08
Mrs Burton is head of Pastoral Care at Hilbre HIgh. This is what she had to say.
'The Amazing Lyfe Project took place at Hilbre High School Humanities College during the academic year 2007-08 as part of our development of emotional literacy at the school. The project aimed to promote wellbeing, encouraging self-awareness and the acceptance of emotions. We feel that the project was highly successful. Feedback from students, parents and staff was very positive. Students reported feeling more confident, more at ease with themselves and more able to understand and manage their own emotions and the emotions of others. Parents felt that the Amazing Lyfe project had given their children a positive experience, and that following the project that they felt happier in themselves and see things in a different light. Relationships at home and at school benefitted and concentration and schoolwork improved.
Following the success of the first year we are expanding the project during the coming academic year so that more students have access to it. Amazing Lyfe is also being offered to parents and staff at school in its adult form 'Deeper Lyfe'. We feel that it is an excellent way of promoting emotional literacy within our school community and we have a deep commitment to continuing with this.’
Jo Burton / Assistant Head Teacher / Hilbre High School Humanities College
More Feedback
All 14 teachers at this school who had students in the programme were given questionnaires about the progress they saw in their students. They unanimously agreed that they would like more of their students to take part in the project.
Participants themselves, in interviews and on questionnaires, unanimously agreed that they had benefitted from the project. All students who took part saw an improvement in several areas of their life - but they were not the same areas. This is particularly supportive of the effectiveness of the programme, as the students are all unique and different and had varied goals for themselves, so one would not expect the same outcomes for all. The great differences in experience and benefits gained suggest that the participants were able to be honest in their feedback. For some, they wished to be more confident and speak out, and they achieved this. For others it was to quieten down, focus more, or cope better with stress. For them the Project offered a different outcome.
Amazing Lyfe Project 2008/09
On Feedback Fridays we have a Sharing Chair – participants take turns to share how their lives are changing using the tools learned in the Amazing Lyfe Project so far. Some comments from this year’s students are listed below:
EM: “ Since the class on how our emotions affect ourselves and others, I am able to tell the truth more easily – I feel much nicer inside, because I don’t have to lie”.
KT: “I feel calmer, I’m not as sensitive to things as I was before – I mean I don’t take offense so easily”.
ED: “I’m more creative now. Like, when there was chaotic energy at home I responded by putting on music, getting out a load of paper and just let it all out on the page. I spent about three hours doing it and it felt like about ten minutes. Afterwards I felt really good”.
SM: “I got an A* in drama. I’m not usually good at that. I have taken a leading role in a presentation in English class. I am standing up and expressing myself more, wanting to be heard and speaking out, speaking up in a way that I didn’t before”.
SB: “I just got the result from my Applied Science GCSE. Normally I am in tears and really anxious and stressed in exams, but at the start of this GCSE test in January I used the OM NAMO chant you taught us and I was really calm and peaceful. Then I did the exam. I got an A”.
EA: “I’m a lot calmer these days and able to listen and understand others more and able to help them better – more empathic. I feel better about myself too – one goal I set at the start of AML was to improve my self-esteem and it’s improving. Also, I am calmer in scary situations, like when my mum has panic attacks. I normally panicked too. But I stay calm now and can help her.
CC: “In a maths test I couldn’t work out how to answer one question, so I cleared my head using an AML breathing tool and the answer came”.
ASM: “It is helping me cope with my feelings about a relative who is dying. I am not resisting painful feelings, but letting them come up. Normally I would react more strongly, get angry, now the feelings are coming up more slowly and I can handle them”.
GENERALLY participants are finding that their emotions are becoming more stable, they are less reactive and they are handling emotions better. Students are happier, more confident, with improved self-esteem. School marks are really improving. This is based on feedback up to March 2009. We began meditation in December 2008 and full curriculum based classes in January 2009. Great results, quite quickly!