Feel the power of the Sunshine Club
Helen Heatley
Shining a light on our children’s potential through drama
At Wellington, we talk a lot about how happy children are better learners. But some children need a bit more attention and care to help them get there. Different children develop at different rates, and some encounter their own unique challenges as they grow up. They may experience social anxiety or low self-esteem. Others may struggle with impulse control or emotional regulation. Others, still, may be facing problems at home. Such factors can manifest themselves in a child’s behaviour patterns in the classroom, in the dining hall, on the sports pitch or the bus. But disciplinary measures and negative reinforcement are seldom solutions to the problem. When children have the chance to be heard in a caring and loving setting — a place where we can model positive behaviour rather than call out bad behaviour — incredible progress can be made. This is why we have created the Sunshine Club.
Sunshine Club is rooted in the principles of drama therapy and what we are calling, Wellington’s Rays of The Sunshine Method. In this system, drama and theatre techniques are employed to help individuals explore their emotions, experiences and personal obstacles. And while we our participants are children, the method is readily adaptable for adults too.
Like drama and theatre, Sunshine Club is a collaborative enterprise, so we do this as a group and through the support of theatre props, in this case, hand puppets. Club members join us during pastoral time for six-week intervals. That is often all our pupils need to start seeing some meaningful changes, but if they need more time, we always welcome them back.
So, what does a Sunshine Club session look like? We have designed a system comprising several points, or, as we like to call them, ‘rays’.
We start by removing our shoes and sitting in a ‘Sun Circle’. Size is unimportant, a Sun Circle can be small as six people or as big as 20. The setting is important. Soft lighting and happy, upbeat music help to set a warm and welcoming tone. We like to start the session, appropriately, with Stevie Wonder’s ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’ playing in the background.
We then break the ice by starting with some laughter and getting everybody involved. One particularly effective trick is to go around the circle and have each person express how they feel. But rather than explaining it in so many words, they only get to use one, like ‘spaghetti’. The more random the word, the better. Each member takes a turn moving to the centre of the circle. They say that word and accompany it with a gesture or body movement. They can convey any emotion they like — joy, sadness, anger, fear, frustration, surprise. The rest of the circle then goes to the centre of the circle and mimics their gesture and tone. Every person in the circle does this. By the time we get halfway around the circle, everybody is laughing. It never fails.
Then we ‘Feel the Feelings’. We shake our shoulders, our arms, our legs. Thoroughly loosened up, we are now we are ready to share. This is where our ‘Three-B Solution’ comes into play.
Everyone sitting in the circle is invited to share a thought, feeling or experience. Anger, sadness, frustration, joy, confusion — all emotions are welcomed. We then decide as a group what we can do with that feeling. We can:
Bin it: simply air the emotion and put it behind us;
Bag it: set the emotion aside to be addressed later when the participant feels ready to talk about it; or
Bring it: process the emotion now.
When a participant ‘brings it’, we go around the Sun Circle and celebrate the news or other members offer constructive solutions for addressing the issue. We take care to frame these solutions in the form of a question, not advice. So, for example, if a participant shares a hurtful remark that was said to them on the playground, one might respond by asking, “Would it help if you expressed to this person that their words hurt you?” By taking this approach, we enable our participants to interrogate and examine their situation and decide for themselves the best course of action.
Whether it is a major breakthrough or a small, but meaningful, forward step, we always have cause to celebrate in a Sunshine Club session. And it can take any number of forms — a song, a game, a round of applause, words of affirmation. Whatever we discuss that day, we try to end things on a high note.
Finally, before we dissolve the circle for the day, we take a few moments for some quiet reflection. A session often ends with a brief guided meditation on mindfulness, gratitude or compassion. And with that, they are ready to face the day and hopefully share a bit of sunshine with everyone they encounter.
We all know that growing up is never easy. As educators and parents, we cannot pave over life’s potholes for our children. But with Sunshine Club, we can empower them to face challenges with the Wellington Value of Courage. We can show them the importance of taking Responsibility for our words and actions and teach them how to approach their inevitable conflicts with more Kindness and Respect. And in so doing, we equip them with tools to succeed in life as we build a stronger, more compassionate community for all.
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