Supporting students

This exam season wellbeing planner helps students to look after their wellbeing while studying for exams. This works particularly well in conjunction with the monthly wellbeing calendar.

This gratitude journal helps to encourage positive thinking by recording three good things about each day.

This kindness journal helps to improve wellbeing by encouraging acts of kindness and providing some useful ideas.

This savouring journal helps to encourage positive thinking through taking the time to notice and appreciate the good things in life.

This resilience journal, where students can work through the four elements of resilience for a particular academic situation to help them rethink and reframe a perceived negative experience.

Bitesize tips to help find a moment of calm and encouragement to be mindful of the present moment.

Here you'll find posters for each of the individual ways to wellbeing. For more resources (or if you're creating your own material), visit the University brand visual identity page.

Connect

Feeling close to others is key to our happiness. Promote Connect using this poster.

‌Give

Helping someone else can make us feel good. Promote Give using this poster.

Take Notice

Living in the present can increase our wellbeing. Promote Take Notice using this poster.

Be Active

Physical activity is proven to help us feel and think positively. Promote Be Active using this poster.

Be Healthy

A healthy body supports a healthy mind. Promote Be Healthy using this poster.

Learn and Discover

Learning something new can improve our wellbeing. Promote Learn and Discover using this poster. 

The Six Ways to Wellbeing guide to using the Six Ways at home can help to spark inspiration for including wellbeing activities into a daily routine.

You can share this planner to encourage students to have a healthy sleep routine and this clickable infographic full of useful information on how to maximise sleep quality. 

Watch our sleep video

If you'd like to share this on your social media channels, the dropbox file can be found here.

Wellbeing Wednesdays are weekly events run by the Student Wellbeing Team. From Guide Dog visits to mindful colouring, each week an event is facilitated to support the Six Ways to Wellbeing Framework. 

This event is promoted each week via the 'Weekly Wellbeing Event Template', released on the Student Support listserv on a Friday and on the @uomwellbeing Instagram on a Sunday. 

You can access an example of this template here.

If you would like your event to be promoted via this template, please email studentsupport@manchester.ac.uk

Change and uncertainty can make us feel anxious, fearful, frustrated and even angry - these are normal and natural responses to have. Evidence suggests that accepting change and uncertainty, and our emotional responses to these, is one of the most effective ways of supporting our wellbeing. Take a look at our change and uncertainty video for an evidence based technique to help you practice acceptance. 

Change and uncertainty can also directly impact various aspects of life, including routine, mindset, home environment, eating habits and sleep pattern. We’ve collated our previous resources, and created a few new things, to help support these areas on our student support website.

Character strengths are the positive parts of our personality that impact how we think, feel and behave. A knowledge of character strengths promotes self-awareness and acceptance of oneself.

The benefit for students knowing what their signature strengths are is that they can exercise these in their personal and academic lives, allowing them to feel an increased sense of wellbeing. By knowing their lesser strengths, they can understand their past experiences better and learn how to further develop these strengths for the future.

We have created this new page on our Student Support microsite that is all about character strengths that you can direct students to. The page contains links to a number of tests that students can take to find out their character strengths, as well as tips on how they can build on their character strengths.  

We have also produced this character strengths worksheet, where students can record their top 5 character strengths and are encouraged to think about the ways that they can use these character strengths in their day-to-day lives.

We have also produced a series of Instagram posts that we would encourage you to share across your channels over a 6 day period. The Instagram posts are in sets of 3, with each set relating to one of the Six Ways to Wellbeing and how exercising that way can strengthen particular character strengths. The idea is that by incorporating each way, students will feel an increased sense of wellbeing with the added bonus of developing various character strengths.

It can be challenging to maintain our financial wellbeing when unexpected costs or reductions to our income occur. The last few years have brought financial concerns for many people, and worries around money can be very straining and unsettling.

Conversations around money can sometimes be awkward and uncomfortable, but if financial concerns become overwhelming, it is always a good idea to speak to someone else and seek support.

We are aware of some of the financial difficulties that students have been facing, so we have created this page that provides information and resources for some of these specific challenges.

We have also created a budget planner to help students manage their finances.

We would also like to encourage students who are facing financial hardship, particularly those from more vulnerable groups, to apply for the Living Cost Support Fund. We have created social media assets that provide information on the LCSF, and we would be grateful if you could share these across your channels.

We've identified two of the ways concentration might be most affected and have provided some resources to help. 

We might be finding it hard to concentrate because we’re experiencing challenging thoughts or emotions (e.g. anxiousness). Another reason for losing focus might be distractions in our workspace environment. It’s normal for us to get wrapped up in what’s happening around us.

You can find all of these resources in one document, here. 

Watch our focus video:

If you'd like to share this on your social media channels, the dropbox file can be found here.

As part of Learn and Discover, we are encouraging students to educate themselves on good study skills. Recent times have meant that usual routines and methods of study have been disrupted, but despite this it is still important for students to study safely and smartly. Whether students are studying online or on campus, having an awareness of how to study well and how to avoid poor practice is key.

We’ve created a new page on the Student Support website for you to direct students to, all about good study skills. The page contains lots of tips about how to study effectively, as well as information and guidance on how to avoid academic malpractice and where to access extra support.

We’ve also created this social media infographic on the five step LEARN study method that we hope you will share on your channels. This is a topic that is important throughout the academic year, so we hope that you will refer back to these resources and share them to students in the future, also.

This resource from the My Learning Essentials programme considers the importance of our mindset for learning.

Here you'll find a useful goal planner to help break larger goals down and assist with issues such as motivation.

Here you'll find a useful infographic to help students who are feeling homesick.

Sometimes we can experience a gap between the things we want or intend to do and actually doing them. This Implementation Intentions table can help break down the steps to help bridge this behaviour-action discrepancy.

If you are still working from home you may have feelings of being overwhelmed due to being in a busy household environment. If this is the case, this infographic can help.

This short video also provides some general tips about how you can look after your wellbeing at home.

The Six Ways to Wellbeing guide to using the Six Ways at home can help to spark inspiration for including wellbeing activities into a daily routine.

Unlinked PDF versions of these infographics can be found here (social connection) and here (boundaries). Social media friendly versions of the infographics can be found here (social connection) and here (boundaries). 

 Motivation is something many of us can struggle with at the best of times and we know that this could be exacerbated during difficult situations. Whether it’s motivation to study, work or exercise, sometimes we all need a little help to stay on track with our goals.

We have produced a goal planner which can be downloaded and printed out, because simply writing our goals down can make us more likely to stick to them. We’ve also produced an infographic which covers our top tips for getting started and staying motivated.

For more information about motivation and helpful tips, visit our motivation page on the Student Support website.

Watch our motivation video

If you'd like to share this on your social media channels, the dropbox file can be found here. If you'd like to share a copy of the infographic on Facebook or Instagram, the social media friendly version of the resource can be found here.

Changes and challenges are a normal part of life, and resilience is the capacity in which we adapt to changes and recover from challenges. We may even find ourselves growing from these experiences and improving our lives as result.

Resilience isn’t an extraordinary trait that only some people have. It involves thoughts and actions that can be learnt and developed in us all. While we may all have a different starting point in how resilient we feel, there are a range of tools that you can use to build and develop resilience. Think of it like a gym session for your psychological immune system!

We have created this page  that includes evidence-based information and resources that students can use to develop their resilience. 

We have also created this video on resilience to support the page and resource that you can share with students. 

Academic Resilience

Academic resilience and the ability to learn from mistakes and failures are key skills which students can use to come out of challenges stronger. Evidence shows that those who are resilient are able to cope with and learn from negative experiences and are, therefore, better able to cope in the future. Hence, students should value mistakes and view them as learning experiences.

We recognise that this can be a challenge for some students, especially for our PGT and PGR students over summer when motivation can be low, and setbacks can have a much larger effect. For our undergraduates, summer can be a good time to learn these skills in preparation for the next academic year. We have collated together some resources which can be used to support students with their academic resilience and their ability to ‘fail well’.

Our myth busting sheet aims to resolve some of the misconceptions around academic resilience and is a useful tool we can use to remind ourselves that mistakes are inevitable, but it’s what we do in response to those mistakes that counts. An Instagram ready version is also available to download.

You can direct your students to our updated our existing resilience page, where we have included some content surrounding academic resilience.

We have also produced a video which discusses the evidence behind academic resilience and learning to fail, and tips to help students build these skills. It can be downloaded to share on your social media channels here or a YouTube link can be accessed here.

Uncertain times can trigger feelings of stress in many, but stress can also be caused by a build up of much smaller pressures. As we travel through periods of uncertainty, it’s important we don’t lose sight of the smaller pressures that many students may be experiencing. Exams and final assignments are a stressful time of the year for many students.

We have collected together a range of resources that can be used for stress prevention and alleviation on this page. We’ve also put together a video of tips for managing stress which you can share with students:

If you'd like to share this on your social media channels, the dropbox file can be found here.

For students:

If you'd like to upload the video to your own social media channels, the dropbox files can be found here.

For staff:

Resources and contacts for students that require academic support, including links to My Learning Essentials, Peer Support and Exam Extra.

Information for students in specific academic circumstances, signposting to information on course changes, withdrawals/interruptions, mitigating circumstances and appeals/complaints.

Information for students who are in financial difficulty or need advice, signposting to money advice factsheets and tuition fee information, as well as the Living Cost Support Fund and Students' Union emergency loan.

Resources and services to assist students experiencing difficulties with their mental health and wellbeing, including links to Qwell, self-help resources and NHS guides, as well as information on accessing specialist services (updated to reflect the closure of non-essential facilities on campus).