|
 A school has brought in a masseuse to calm stressed pupils preparing for GCSEs and boost their performance in the exams.
The 30-minute sessions are being offered to 15- and 16-year-olds at the mixed comprehensive who are considered at risk of missing out on good grades.
Twenty-five have had regular back massages from professional therapist Karen Etchells since the scheme was introduced three months ago at Priory Community School in Westonsuper-Mare, Somerset, UK.
The first massage is free, but pupils must pay £5 a time after that for the sessions which take place once a week on a Friday.
Headmaster Neville Coles said they had proved particularly popular among the boys - especially the rugby team who went on to be crowned county champions.
He hopes the initiative will give GCSE results a lift.
"This is a high-pressure time for Year 11 students," Mr Coles said. "They work extremely hard and do get stressed. We have basically employed a masseuse to come in for a day. It is a mechanism to de-stress the kids and improve their exam results.
"At a time when we are constantly encouraging our Year 11 students to be at their very best and revise for their GCSEs we also want to provide relaxation activities. Massage is just one of these."
Parents have to agree and the sessions take place outside lesson time, he said. The school has spent £250 from a special fund for raising standards from the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.
Mr Coles said 32 per cent of pupils scored five GCSEs at grades A* to C in 2002. This had risen to 55 per cent last year and the school was aiming for 60 per cent this year.
Mrs Etchells, a 41-year-old mother of two from Weston-super-Mare who is trained in holistic therapies, said she originally approached the school offering massages to staff. Pupils asked Mr Coles if they could be involved as well.
"I have a group of pupils in the middle who are achieving OK but could do better and are not getting special help," said Mrs Etchells.
"Mr Coles decided to give them an incentive just to up their grades a little bit. It is the boys who come more than the girls, probably because a lot of them do sports and rugby. I just do back and shoulders. They are enjoying it."
She says she is unconcerned about anyone getting the wrong idea about her sessions with the pupils, adding: "I am their mothers' age - that has not been an issue."
The scheme is part of an increasing trend for alternative therapies in the classroom. Schools have tried Indian head massages, aromatherapy and reflexology in an attempt to give pupils an edge in exams.
Some primary schools teach pupils to give each other massages and credit the scheme with calming rowdy behaviour.
Experts gave the Priory Community School scheme a guarded welcome. Dr Richard House, based at the Research Centre for Therapeutic Education at Roehampton University, said a Massage in Schools Programme had introduced massage to many primary pupils.
"This is the first time I have heard of this happening in secondary schools," he said. "Pupils are subject to stress of many kinds these days and this has to reduce that.
"As a general principle, it's a good thing, as long as the rules are very clear and it is done in a professional way. The problem is that rather than going to the actual cause of children feeling stressed you are just dealing with the symptoms."
Source: Mail on Sunday 1st May 2008
|
