Seairra Nemecek used to put too much pressure on herself to excel at school. The overachiever, whos in the gifted program, would stay awake into the wee hours perfecting assignments, bury her head in books while her friends played, and be crestfallen if she scored 100 per cent on a test, but got the bonus question wrong. Her parents feared her growing anxiety would result in a nervous breakdown.

But teachers at Donview Middle School organized an intervention of sorts and made her understand the importance of achieving balance in her life. It worked. She started hanging around her friends again, got more shuteye and learned to manage the time spent on school work. And her grades didnt suffer.

Its a philosophy the school is expanding this year as it becomes one of two health and wellness academies launched by the Toronto District School Board. The new focus of the schools will be on healthy living, physical activity, and social, emotional, mental and personal wellness.

The schools will still follow the provincial education curriculum, but teachers will infuse health and wellness themes into their lessons. For instance, journal writing may be about food choices and the different food groups. Math class may involve studying the sugar content of different juices. Novel studies may delve into mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression and self-harm.

These students really need to focus on health and wellness to be successful, says principal Sue Brown of what is now the Donview Middle Health and Wellness Academy. If they are not eating breakfast, physically fit, getting enough sleep or have anxiety and mental health issues, they have difficulty learning and cant be truly successful until these issues are addressed.

Weaving these issues into the curriculum is a way to sort of trick kids into getting the pumped about their health and the benefits, she says.

The health and wellness academies the other health-focused school is the Rene Gordon Elementary Health and Wellness Academy, also located near the Don Valley Parkway and York Mills Rd. are among the five different types of specialty schools the TDSB is starting this year. The other themed schools are: a girls leadership academy, a boys leadership academy, two vocal music academies, and three sports and wellness academies.

Details about the new specialty schools.

While many schools place importance on the health and well-being of their students, Donview now has a mandate and vision centred on the belief that a student whos healthy and well is better prepared for lifes challenges. To that end, staff developed five key areas of wellness to boost the students health: academic, physical, social, career and emotional/mental.

You do want to promote academic excellence, says Grade 8 teacher Audra Morgan. But at the same time, if youre teaching the whole child, you have to address the other issues.

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TDSB Health and Wellness academies open in Toronto and focus on students’ wellbeing