This was my first ever HeadStart Conference since John and I started in November 2020. It was the first ever in-person conference since the Covid pandemic, the first South Tees HeadStart Conference. And it was very exciting!
As you may know, I am Julie and I work in the Redcar and Cleveland schools as part of the HeadStart Team. The Conference was a great opportunity to bring as many HeadStarters, from across Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, together as we could and celebrate their achievements. I was asked to deliver a workshop and I needed a topic that would inspire our young people who already have a profound amount of knowledge of wellbeing. My thinking cap was on and then an idea, my workshop would be on, Mephobia!
Mephobia is the fear of being so awesome that the human race cannot handle it. I asked HeadStarters to imagine a world where we respect each other for our qualities and were curious about each other and our abilities. We spent no time at all focussing on how our bodies looked, just what they can do. We honoured our uniqueness and saluted our differences. We took time to learn about the amazing things our bodies were capable of doing. HeadStarters recognised their individual talents and labelled their body with so much positivity. We took some time to really look ourselves in the mirror and see how wonderfully hard our body works for us every day, allowing us to do, see, hear, touch, taste and speak.
I shared lots of facts about the human body that sparked a lot of questions, especially about how when we are born we have more bones than when we are fully grown. And, giggles when we spoke about how an average person pumps enough, in one day, to fill a party balloon. And, “now I understand” faces when I explained that ears never stop growing.
A great day of celebration and certainly a workshop that celebrated our individual AWESOMENESS!
Stay awesome!
Published: July 18