Have you ever wondered what a Wellness Day is and is it actually helpful? A Wellness day is a day where students or employees take time off from stress like school work, projects and tests or quizzes. They then just focus on something less stressful or something they like to keep their mind off the stress.
FCHS started doing wellness days during Advisory last year. This year’s most recent Wellness Day offers many activities for students to pick from compared to the one in the beginning of the year in September. This time around they offer activities such as nature walk, Brawl Stars tournament, coloring, bracelet making, etc.
If you look up “do wellness days actually work” on Google you’ll end up looking at a lot of articles with mixed feelings about wellness days. You’ll end up coming to the conclusion that some people think Wellness days are helpful and some people don’t think they help at all.
According to themacweekly.com, students should elect to take time for themselves when it’s most appropriate for them, instead of being on a controlled schedule of Wellness days.
Brian Rios (11) agreed with this statement, “I don’t think Wellness days are helpful mainly because people should just decide when they need a break or else people will just skip it. Most people think it’s not interesting and they don’t feel like they need it. They’ll just do other things other than actually going to wellness days, also most people just take that time to be on their phones more than actually doing the activities offered,” said Rios.
Other people believe that Wellness days don’t help and just add more stress “I think Wellness days are a waste of time because it’s boring and just adds more stress to people who have lots of missing work and so I think we should be allowed to have our backpacks when we go to Wellness days so we can finish up the work we’re missing,” Natalia Gonzales (12) said.
On the other hand officepracticum.com said about 75% said mental health days “can be an effective tool to support a child’s mental health.” This shows that some people do think Wellness days are helpful.
“I honestly think that Wellness day helps all students to be free for a day and not have to be stressed out for one period. I feel that a few more activities could be offered; Something to do with music, and or maybe appropriate ideas that the majority of students would gracefully enjoy,” Tiana Harris (12) said.
Some teachers do believe Wellness days help students in many ways. Systems of Support Advisor Arthur Reinaltt gave his view on Wellness Days.
“I do believe Wellness Days help students because it provides a break from academics. This year, we are focused on creating a sense of belonging at Falls Church. With that in mind, the activities fair was a great opportunity for all students to get involved with after school activities that align with their interests,” said Reinaltt.
Wellness Day at FC is also designed to help students find friends.
“Doing this allows students to find others with common interests, helping create friendships along the way. That’s why we have our wonderful staff create and invite students to their own stations on certain Wellness Days,” Reinaltt said.
