Over the last 10 years I have been privileged to work with many international schools across the world on wellbeing programmes. My motivation was to share my own learning about coaching psychology and positive psychology and how these evidence-based approaches can be applied to enhance wellbeing, resilience, flourishing and performance in students, staff and wider school communities.
My own practice has developed in parallel with the work of some incredible researchers and practitioners in the “positive education” movement, which has gained increasing recognition and traction during the last decade. In this article I will draw on my experience and my chapter “Approaches to Positive Education” co-authored with Dr. Suzy Green and Daniela Falecki in the new open access Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education (2021). I will outline how schools I have worked have developed strategic approaches to wellbeing, highlighting some key lessons we’ve all learned along the way that might be relevant for your school and context.
Lesson 1: Positive motivation for wellbeing in schools – approach not avoid
This is the first important lesson in developing a strategic approach to wellbeing. Don’t wait until things start to go wrong to bring in a greater focus and emphasis on positive mental health. Of course, we all want to mitigate and buffer against increasing levels of anxiety, stress and depression in adults and young people but this an avoid goal. Start from the premise that the purpose of schools is to support their communities to flourish – to both feel good and function well, and to achieve academically, not at the expense of the positive mental health of leaders, staff and students but because of it. This is an approach goal – it is inspiring, exciting, meaningful and aspirational.
Today there has never been a more important time to consider the role of schools and learning institutions in teaching the skills of wellbeing. In the past two years, the world that we live in characterised by rapid environmental, political, economic, technological, and social change, has been further challenged by Covid. There is no question that the pandemic has brought the need for wellbeing, resilience, and mental toughness in schools, organisations, and communities to the centre stage.
However, long before Covid appeared the positive education movement was already evolving, not as a result of a crisis per se, but for the proactive enhancement of wellbeing and flourishing in school communities. In my experience and supported by recent discussions with the schools with whom I have engaged, their positive investments in community wellbeing have paid real dividends as they have navigated successfully through these unprecedented and difficult times and indeed still found ways to thrive academically, professionally and personally.
Lesson 2: Create a common understanding
Creating the conditions and climate for positive change is important to ensure staff buy-in, which includes a comprehensive understanding of how wellbeing and positive education approaches align with each school’s unique context. Wellbeing approaches need to be seen as an added value and something that can be lived, taught, and embedded within a school rather than a “layering” on top of other initiatives.
Provide an experiential whole school staff introduction by experts in the fields of wellbeing and positive psychology who understand the science and research and how it is being applied in the real world. Giving staff a collective opportunity to explore the benefits of positive psychology interventions for their own wellbeing is a great way to inform and engage staff and to identify champions whose positive energy can be harnessed to move forwards.
Lesson 3: Wellbeing leadership
Senior leadership buy-in to strategic approaches to wellbeing is key and, let’s face it, they are the ones sometimes most in need of wellbeing support. This can be achieved by engaging senior leaders first through consultant-led team briefings and 1:1 coaching to explore their own wellbeing needs.
The designation of a senior wellbeing lead is also essential. Indeed, over the past five years I have seen the creation of, and targeted recruitment to, newly created leadership posts with specific briefs and job titles relating to positive education or whole school wellbeing. Increasingly these educators are bringing the added value of embracing relevant further education, such as completing a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP), doctoral study, or coaching certifications. By building the internal capability of school leadership and staff, schools become less reliant on external consultants and better able to embed their approach to wellbeing in a context-specific manner.
Lesson 4: No one-size-fits-all
There are many evidence-based models, frameworks and interventions. It’s important that schools find what works for their specific needs and context. Some schools opt for an established model such as PERMAH or the 5 Ways to Wellbeing, others develop their own. Learn from schools through organisations such as Positive Education Schools Association and connect with other pioneering educators within this generous community. The Palgrave Handbook is rich with free open access content relating to the best current global good practice.
Lesson 5: Integrate evidence-based coaching
In our Palgrave book chapter, my co-authors and I argue that positive education can be defined as:
“The strategic and sustainable integration and implementation of the complementary fields of positive psychology, coaching psychology, and other relevant wellbeing science into an educational setting utilising multiple evidence-based initiatives aimed at creating flourishing students, staff, and whole-school communities.”
Coaching recognises that “no one size fits all” and provides a space and a process through which the school as a whole and individuals can aspire, reflect , assess, take action, evaluate, be accountable, progress and embed and sustain positive change.
In my experience this is best achieved through a strategic approach which includes coaching of school leaders, key teams, and champions combined with cultivating a culture of quality coaching conversations which in itself becomes a contributory factor in whole school wellbeing.
- Invest in 1:1 leadership coaching to ensure leaders are role-modelling the principles of positive education and focused on the enhancement of their own wellbeing. In my coaching practice this also includes elements of “psycho-education” as I bring to life for leaders the latest research and models from the coaching and positive psychology fields.
- Provide 1:1 coaching support for wellbeing leads
- Coaching training for staff – peer and student support
- Introduce coaching conversations for staff, students, parents
Lesson 6: Measurement
It is important to both benchmark and measure progress in wellbeing across the school community. The Palgrave chapter Assessing Well-being in School Communities (Jarden et al, 2021), summarises the basics of assessment and outlines wellbeing assessments available for schools. It covers what assessments are, why they are important, and examples of good assessments in practice. It also explores the benefits of assessment data in decision-making, and provides a comprehensive list of questions schools and decision-makers may find useful in considering assessment tools and approaches.
As educators there are certainly lessons for us all to be drawn from developments over the last decade that can support both individual and collective wellbeing within school communities. I wish you well in your endeavours and feel free to reach out for support.
This article first appeared in the latest edition of Wellbeing in International Schools magazine, out now.