Festival of Wellbeing 2021

Esther Hunt (Faculty of Education) will be offering a range of mindful practices and will draw upon the work of Professor Mark Williams, Dr Patrizia Collard, and Dr Sue Stuart-Smith (The Well Gardened Mind).

Ideas and resources for those working with or caring for young people. A set of ideas and techniques for Young People to put into practice and facilitate their own self regulated wellbeing resilience. Some of these are creative and practical activities, others are from trauma informed yoga and mindfulness.

This session will be delivered by Sarah-Cate Blake, Fitzwilliam Museum Education Officer

A brief look at:

• the psychological impact of the COVID pandemic and lockdown on adults and adolescents
• the potential for mixed feelings as COVID restrictions lift
• taking care of our mental health as we go back to our ‘normal’ lives

Dr Zoe Martin, Principal Clinical Psychologist in Major Trauma & Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Staff Mental Health Service Dr Anna Conway-Morris, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist & Training Programme Director for Child Psychiatry

Our systems of recognition and reward play an important part in creating a positive research culture.

This session will look at the connection between recognition and research culture, and will encourage you to explore how you would like to be recognised, and how you can recognise others, in order to promote a positive and healthy research culture for yourself, your research group and department.

This session is being delivered by Liz Simmonds, Assistant Head, Postdoc Academy, Chair of the Research Culture Working Group

University staff can attend this free 1 hour online workshop on cycle maintenance, learning the fundamentals to keep you riding with how to safety check your bike and perform a puncture repair. There will also be a chance to ask the instructor questions.

Is mindfulness training like physical exercise but for the mind, that will improve our health and wellbeing?

This is a frequent comparison, but how far can it be stretched?

We will discuss the scientific evidence available and explore its most critical issues before you decide to go for some mindful pull ups.

Dr Julieta Galante, Department of Psychiatry

This webinar aims to recognise how diet and lifestyle impacts overall health and wellbeing especially in the ‘new normal’ academic workplace, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, we will discuss how the food we eat and lifestyle choices we make can have direct and indirect effects on our function, and speakers will access practical strategies to integrate healthy habits as part of daily routines.

Speakers: Professor Sumantra Ray, Dr Minha Rajput-Ray, Helena Trigueiro RD, Shane McAuliffe RD

"In this workshop you will explore what wellbeing means to you and how you could enhance yours. This online workshop will use the LEGO Serious Play facilitation method to help explore complex topics.

Building with LEGO bricks and using LEGO Serious Play facilitation will make sure that you and the others in the group contribute equally and understand each other. It will stimulate your thinking, communication and problem solving skills, and create an environment with insight, confidence and commitment. Your possibilities for learning are enormous.

Please note that this workshop only has a small capacity and sign up will close on 22 June so that a LEGO brick kit can be sent to you in the post in good time. You will also need to submit a postal address so the bricks can be put in the post by the end of 25 June.

To get the most from the session, the group will work together using the basic principles of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®:
 1. Question – an issue and a suitable open question is identified

2. Build – you make LEGO® brick models to answer the question from your own perspective

3. Share – you all explain your model using it as a metaphor to answer the question

4. Reflect – the group checks everyone’s understanding, and makes sense of the knowledge that has been unlocked.

You will find the approach useful because:


• We all have a unique perspective

• Our brain works better in three dimensions

• Playing in three dimensions lets us see more perspectives and have more ideas

• Story-making and metaphors help you communicate more clearly."

Joining Instructions and how to register to receive your Lego Bricks will be on your booking confirmation email

"In this workshop you will explore what wellbeing means to you and how you could enhance yours. This online workshop will use the LEGO Serious Play facilitation method to help explore complex topics.

Building with LEGO bricks and using LEGO Serious Play facilitation will make sure that you and the others in the group contribute equally and understand each other. It will stimulate your thinking, communication and problem solving skills, and create an environment with insight, confidence and commitment. Your possibilities for learning are enormous.

Please note that this workshop only has a small capacity and sign up will close on 22 June so that a LEGO brick kit can be sent to you in the post in good time. You will also need to submit a postal address so the bricks can be put in the post by the end of 25 June.

To get the most from the session, the group will work together using the basic principles of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®:

1. Question – an issue and a suitable open question is identified

2. Build – you make LEGO® brick models to answer the question from your own perspective

3. Share – you all explain your model using it as a metaphor to answer the question

4. Reflect – the group checks everyone’s understanding, and makes sense of the knowledge that has been unlocked.

You will find the approach useful because:


• We all have a unique perspective

• Our brain works better in three dimensions

• Playing in three dimensions lets us see more perspectives and have more ideas

• Story-making and metaphors help you communicate more clearly."

Joining Instructions and how to register to receive your Lego Bricks will be on your booking confirmation email

Celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, the gardens have always been a very important part of Newnham College life.

The first principal, Anne Jemima Clough extolled the virtues of ‘fresh air, exercise and wholesome food’ and as part of the 150th celebrations we are continuing this tradition with the introduction of a new permaculture Food Forest Garden. Designed and grown by students with the garden team, the new garden is a place where all members of the College can learn about permaculture and sustainable food production, and the benefits of working outside together and growing our own organic food.

The tour will also include a visit to the ‘Incredible Edible’ potager beds in the main garden, planted with fruit and vegetables like kale, chard, lettuces, beans and more than 20 varieties of tomatoes for those in College to pick throughout the summer.

Only those with a booking will be admitted to the college in line with the government Covid guidelines