Bilateral drawing is drawing simultaneously with both hands and is sometimes referred to as bilateral doodling or scribbling. It is an exercise in both self-soothing and warming up your whole brain.

Kate directed us to get a pen in both hands and then to draw in mirror image. The idea was to not overthink it and just go with the flow – you can see the fruits of my labour here! I’d never done this before and I enjoyed the experience. It was interesting to hear Kate talk about bilateral drawing and how it is used. In arts-based coaching it is a good exercise to help clients settle into sessions and to self-soothe, connecting them to their bodies and their natural rhythms. It brings people into the present and helps to slow breathing, connecting them to the here and now. We talked about how useful this could also be in our learning spaces to help our students sooth and settle.

Kate also shared with us resources linked to ‘5 Ways to Wellbeing’ (Connect/ Be Active/ Take Notice/ Keep Learning/ Give) which was a useful reminder for the importance – for staff and students - of embedding wellbeing principles into school life.

We then went on to have more of a free range of Kate’s amazing arts and crafts supplies and used the time to chat. This was my favourite part of the session Getting some time with colleagues to chat about work and life in a relaxed setting meant we had opportunity to connect and share. As someone relatively new to the Kenwood Academy family, I really appreciated this 😊

Please see staff resources saved here: X:\KenwoodStaffShare\Pedagogy Connect Resources